Time of Our Lives version 2
by OriginalPippie
Summary: This is a sequel to Sin of the Father. It takes place a few years later when the kids or most of them rather are in high school. Cowritten by myself and PunkofaTomboy.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one

By Pippie

(Dusti's POV)

I grabbed my notebook and a pencil off of the kitchen table and made sure that my schedule was safely tucked in the front cover of the notebook. Since it was the first day I didn't need my backpack. I opened the notebook again and checked to see if I had my locker assignment and combination in there as well. Jack and Jordan came up behind me and Jack took my schedule from my book.

"What's this? Something important?" He acted like he was going to spit on my schedule

I snatched it from him and put it back in my notebook "You're so God damn annoying."

"Yeah so?"

Jordan put his arm on my shoulder, using me as a human elbow rest. I shoved his arm off of my shoulder and he smirked at me.

"Looks like we're going to be around each other a lot during the day, sis." He half signed

I rolled my eyes and looked at both of my brothers.

"Listen you little twerps. I'm a senior and you two are freshmen. You are not allowed anywhere near me, my friends, or my classes. Got that?"

They both laughed and said "Yeah right". I rolled my eyes again. Our dads came into the room, grinning at us. Bam held our two-year-old little sister, Kayla April, in his arms. She was still in her Mickey Mouse pajamas and asking about cartoons.

Kayla has the biggest blue eyes any one has ever seen and Jimmy's smile. She also has the curliest long dark brown hair that looks so cute when it is done up in pigtails. Bam and Jimmy, since she was such a surprise to all of us, call her their "miracle baby". (We all thought years ago that Jimmy wasn't able to become pregnant any more) But I and my Aunt Jade refer to her as their "Mid-life crisis baby". Which is really what she is.

I looked over at my dads and saw that they were both grinning from ear-to-ear as they looked at us.

"Wow. Look at you three." Bam said "I can't believe y'all are going to high school together."

"You boys are freshmen and Dusti a senior…" Jimmy sighed happily "I never thought this day would ever come."

He came up to us and gave us each a hug. He hugged me last, and probably the longest and hardest. I almost couldn't breathe for a second.

"Dad you can let go now."

"Sorry baby." He let go some and looked at me. It looked like he was getting tears in his eyes "I can't help it. My little baby girl is a senior already."

"Jeeze dad… you going to get all mushy and weepy on me?"

"I can't help it."

Bam walked over to us and hugged me with one arm and then kissed my forehead.

"We're so proud of you. I can't believe it. Just yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital. Now you're a senior in high school." He looked like he was going to cry as well

"Oh man not you too. Why don't you guys act like men right now? Or at least fuss over the boys."

"You don't have to fuss over us if you don't want to." Jack said

"Yeah it won't bother us if you want to act like men." Added Jordan with a laugh

"Hey just be glad we're not taking pictures or recording this." Bam said

Kayla clapped her hands "Pikters! Pikters!"

Jimmy laughed "No, Kay, we're not having pictures taken you little camera ham."

"Oh, hey, Dust you're still watching Kay after school, alright?" Said Bam

"Don't worry I didn't forget." I heard a car horn beep outside "Oh that's Andy. I gotta go."

"You need money for food?" Jimmy asked

"Nah, it's a half day remember?"

"Oh yeah, never mind. Well then you taking your brothers with you?"

I stopped dead in my tracks at the door "Why can't they take the bus?"

"Just take them for today, please." Bam said

I groaned "Alright. Come on guys."

I grumbled and walked out the door, not really caring if my brothers were behind me or not.

"Bye dad!" I called. I heard them say bye back and then they said bye to my brothers

I hopped into the front seat of Andy's car and he gave me a kiss.

"Ready Dust?"

"Hold on. My dads wanted me to bring the twins with us."

Andy sighed and waited for Jack and Jordan to get in the backseat of the car. He pulled out of the driveway and we were on our way to school. Today was going to be a long day and it was just getting started.

(Andy's POV)

Ugh I can't believe Dusti's brothers had to ride to school with us. I wanted to pull over and kick them out of the car so they could walk the rest of the way to school. Normally I don't mind Jack and Jordan but they get extremely annoying when they know Dusti and I want to be alone.

When I pulled into a spot in the school parking lot I had the twins get out of the car first. I told them that they needed to find another way home when school got out. Dusti and I waited until they were inside the school before we kissed each other. We got out of the car and headed inside, holding hands. I was so glad that we have our first class together. We can sit next to each other (not that we wouldn't) and since it's geography I can copy off of Dusti's work. Bam has already taught her a lot on the subject so she'll do so much better than me. That little miss smarty-pants. Ha.

In between the first couple classes I decided to look for my locker. It was so far away from Dusti's locker, but oh well. I also found out that it was in between Jacey's locker and another girl, Danielle's locker. Danielle is a sophomore this year and she already thinks she's hot shit. Apparently she is the most popular girl in her grade and has a new boyfriend like every other week. She's had the biggest crush on me since she was in 8th grade and tries to flirt with me all the time. It makes me laugh the way she acts around me, like I'm some sort of God or whatever. She gets so jealous of Dusti too. I wouldn't be surprised if she ever tried to start a bitch fight with Dusti. Dusti would so win if she did.

When I was at my locker Danielle came up to me and got all giggly and flirty, thinking that it had some sort of effect on me. Jacey came by and stood by her locker, making it seem like she was checking out the inside of the locker. I glanced back at Jacey and saw her mocking Danielle. I almost laughed when I saw that. Danielle walked away, dropping a note behind her. Jacey continued to mock her behind her back and then she bet down to pick up the note. We both laughed out loud as we read the note. It would be something to share with all of our friends later on.

"Uh-oh Andy. Looks like Dusti has some competition." Jacey laughed and then made a 'l' on her forehead with her fingers

"Yeah. I'm just too hot for my own good, aren't I?" I said sarcastically with a laugh

"And to think, Cole had the same problem with the younger girls when he was a senior last year. Now with him gone they have to go after some other guy. Might as well be the dirty hippie dating Bam Margera and Jimmy Pop's daughter."

I rolled my eyes "Yeah. I might be a hippie but I'm not a dirty hippie."

"Oh did you wash today? For once?"

"Shut up."

After that everyone was told to head down to the gym for an assembly. Jacey, Jeremey, Jack, Jordan, Dusti and I all sat together, completely ignoring the fact that everyone was told to sit according to class. We just quietly talked amongst ourselves as the principal gave the same old boring ass "welcome back" speech. It was so lame that I don't think any one paid attention to it. At one point our little group almost got in trouble when Dusti decided to make fun of the principal, causing us all to laugh. The principal just overlooked it and went on with his speech. That's the thing about us having famous parents. We usually get away with anything in school. And now that Jeremey, Dusti and I are seniors, we'll get away with even more. It rocks. I think this school year is going to be sweet.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

By Punk

(Jacey's POV)

Whoever invented stairs and books should be shot. My classes are all over the place so getting to my locker is a bitch. Why did I have to agree with my mom's suggestion and take honors courses?! I'm not doing anything with my life that will ever involve college. I'm the daughter of two celebs, the niece of three, and the sister of three more. I'm in the process of getting a record deal for crying the hell out loud!

So I had my little bitch fit in the hall on the way to the parking lot, when Jeremey caught up to me. "Slow the fuck down, Jacey." He said. I looked at him and glared. Jeremey could drop out anytime he wanted, he and his band had been signed a record deal and were due to start touring next summer. They were called "The sons of mercy" and they awesome. "What the hell is up with you?" I was about to tell him that my classes fucking sucked when we found Chris hanging out with a couple of girls. He had grown out his dark hair over his ears and around his neck his bangs were swiped back and he was leaning against Cole's car flirting with senior and junior girls. Jeremey started laughing.

"Chris you're such a player! By the way girls, that's Cole's car."

"Jey!" The girls were starting to walk away and Chris looked pissed. "Oh well I got a few numbers." He looked down and shoved them into his pocket.

"You're so like Dad." Cole told him coming up with Corey not far behind. "Did you see Aila yet?" Chris shook his head no.

"I saw them in the hall a few minutes ago." Jeremey answered.

"Hey there you guys are!" Aila called as she walked out of the school with Hanna following behind. "Hey babe." She kissed Cole and hugged him, the sparkle of Cole's ring on her finger happened to catch my eye. He proposed to her over the summer and they were now planning their wedding for sometime next August. We all knew it was coming. Cole and Aila have had a thing for each other since they were babies, according to Mom, and have been dating since Aila was like fourteen.

"Hei! Hei!" Hanna told Aila and Cole to stop groping each other in Finnish. They pulled away and got into the car. "Come on Jacey, you can ride with us." By us she met Jeremey and her. For some reason those two had grown closer over the summer. The entire CKY (as we refer to ourselves as) family had spent the summer in Finland and it had been fucking awesome. We'd been home a week and I miss it almost as much as Aila and Hanna do.

I got into the back seat of Jeremey's car and pulled out my ipod. I knew exactly what Jeremey was gonna play and I really didn't want to listen to "Devils" or "Razorblade romance" for the 90 billionth time. Instead I started listening to Children of Bodom.

Mom and Dad weren't home when we got there. We all got out and Aila jumped into Cole's arms. Grinning, Cole carried her inside and ran upstairs to his room with her. Chris and Corey looked at each other and shook their heads, laughing. "I'm meeting Mark; I'll see you guys later." Corey went inside and grabbed his skateboard, a packed bag and his keys. "Tell Mom I'll be back about 10 AM. See you two tomorrow night." He told Jeremey and Me pulling us into a rough hug before he left.

"I have homework and an exam to study for. Yell if you need me." Chris told us, heading inside.

Surprisingly enough he was the only one of us so far that was going to college. He didn't really have a major; he just basically was doing whatever. In all honesty, even though Cole Chris and Corey were all really smart, Cole had always been the smartest, in fact when he graduated last year he had been offered a full scholarship but turned it down, he had a career in skating, and he wouldn't give that up for the world. Where Cole had skating and Aila, Corey had art and Mark. Corey was extremely talented, just like Mark. They both had become certified tattoo artists and are currently working in Mark's mom's Chester shop, but hoping to either buy or inherited Kat's string of tattoo parlors across the US. But Chris on the other hand just didn't have that. He didn't some special talent that would make him famous, so he decided to go to college.

"Hey Jacey, I got band practice." Jeremey told me and I nodded.

Hanna decided she wanted to go with him and they invited me but I declined. I watch my brother and Hanna leave and I went inside. I headed down to the basement and grabbed my mic and the song I had written in school. I started to sing and drifted away at the sound of my own voice.

(Jeremey's POV)

"Jey, man, you are the da bomb!" Alex Harris, our keyboardist, shouted to me. I laughed putting down my drum sticks. I guess skateboarding isn't the only thing you inherit just by being a Margera. Even though technically I'm not a Margera. Anyway, the "Sons of Mercy", as my band is called, is made up of 5 members, Alex, myself, Tony Lane the guitarist, David Jones on bass, and Quinn Lashley our brilliant vocalist.

"Yeah Jey may be the da bomb, but I'm the sex appeal." Quinn said taking off his shirt and throwing it at Alex. He flexed his muscles so that his toned abs showed through his tan skin. David let out a wolf whistle and we all laughed.

"Just don't do that near Jey's brother. He'd throw ya down and rape ya." Tony said laughing. Alex snickered. I rolled my eyes. "No offence Jey. I'm just kidding."

I smirked grabbing my bag. "Yeah, but just for the record, It's you Corey said he'd love to rape." Tony's face fell and I laughed. "See ya guys at school." I walked out and Hanna caught up to me. "Hey beautiful." I told her and she blushed slightly.

"You're really good, Jey." She smiled at me and I smiled back opening my car door for her. "Thanks." She got in and I dropped my bag in the back seat before getting in. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"We should probably go home. Mom should have supper ready by now." She nodded and turned on the CD player. She didn't say another word on the way home. It made me uneasy; Hanna is usually a very talkative person.

Supper was on the table waiting for us when we got home. We were greeted by Aiden, my nephew, who had a face full of spaghetti sauce. "Jey Jey!" He called wrapping his arms around my leg. So spaghetti sauce got all over my jeans. I guess I can forgive him; after all he's only three. "We wait for you! Hi Hanna!" He grinned up at Hanna who smiled back. "Pick me up!" He holds his arms up at me and I laughed picking up the messy boy.

"Mommy said Jamie really hungry." Aiden pointed over to the table.

Amy was nursing my newborn niece, Jamie Elizabeth Novak. She blushed deeply when she saw us standing there and started to get up. "Naw Amy, it's ok." I put Aiden down and sat down and got some spaghetti. Hanna sat next to me and fixed her plate. "Hey Josh, how's it going?" I asked as he came in and sat down next to Amy.

"Well it's going." Josh snickered. He's, for right now, Cole's manager, and he also was once Amy's. Amy was a singer and she's was damn good. I say was because Amy decided to give up music and be a hair dresser so she could focus more on Aiden and now Jamie. I think she may be a cook if hair dressing gets boring for her. Actually, I'm pretty sure she was the one who cooked dinner too. My mom inherited some of Grama's cooking skills, but Amy's are even better.

"Amy, this spaghetti is really good." I said with a smirk.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "How'd you know?"

"Mom can't cook spaghetti like you, and dad just plain can't cook." I said taking another bite.

Amy started laughing. "Actually, your sister cooked dinner. I just helped."

"Jacey made this?!" Hanna asked out of shock. Amy nodded burping Jamie. "Wow. Jacey can cook. I didn't know that."

I shook my head. Guess my family is just full of surprises.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

By Pippie

(Jack's POV)

Jordan and I came into the house after filming some things in the yard. What I mean but that is, Jordan likes to do these little stunts and I tape him. He's sort of continuing our family's legacy, except he learned more from watching Steve-O a lot. He's also a bit of a contortionist and he is learning different stunts while on stilts. My brother is great about the stunts he does. People even say that he could be a professional stuntman.

Anyway we went inside and Jordan went straight upstairs. Dusti and Andy were sitting on the couch together. Dusti held Kay on her lap and was making faces at her, making her laugh. I grinned because of Kay's laugh. Everyone in our family laughs in the same cute giggle type way. Dusti looked up at me.

"So were you taping Jordan again?" She asked

"Yeah why?"

"Did Jordan put his stilts away this time? You know both dads will kill him if he didn't. Remember last time when Bam nearly broke his leg after tripping over them?"

I rolled my eyes "No we didn't put them away. Only because we're going out to film some more. But Jordan leaned them up against the side of the house."

"Ok whatever."

I walked away trying not to see Andy kiss her on the neck. I then went into the kitchen and grabbed a snack and ate it on my way upstairs. After finishing my snack I went straight into the bathroom and closed the door. I looked down at myself and placed a hand on my stomach before going over to the scale. Taking a breath I stepped on the scale and then looked at the numbers that appeared. I quickly stepped off of the scale with a slight gasp and then I stood on it again to see if I wasn't seeing things. Looking down at the numbers again I then closed my eyes and stepped off of the scale. My weight had gone up _again_.

I wound up gaining like 20-30 pounds over the summer and I have been gaining a little here and there, and now I gained five more fucking pounds. People in school started calling me "the heavier twin". A couple times I even heard "the fat twin". I'm _not_ fat. Sure I gained weight but I didn't think that I looked that much overweight to where I would be considered fat. I really despise my genes.

I turned to look in the mirror above the sink and I just stared at my body. Man… I looked so much heavier in the mirror. I hated seeing myself like that. Why couldn't I have just stayed thin like Jordan? The more I looked at myself the more I hated what I saw. My eyes began to fill with tears and I thought about some of the things that I heard people say about me. Things like, chubby, chunky, fatass… "The fat twin" seemed to hurt me the most. Why do I have to be known as "the fat twin"? I couldn't take it anymore so I turned away from the mirror. I rushed over to the toilet and knelt down in front of it. As tears streamed down my face I stuck two fingers down my throat, forcing myself to throw up.

(Jordan's POV)

"Jack?" I knocked on the door again "Jack are you ok?"

When I was walking past the bathroom I knew something was wrong with my brother. I couldn't hear him all that well but from what I could tell, Jack was in the bathroom crying. I checked to see if the door was locked before I went inside. Jack was sitting on the floor by the toilet with his back to the door. He held his arms around his legs and he was crying like I thought.

"Jack? What's wrong?"

Unless he spoke very quietly to where I couldn't hear him, he didn't answer me so I sat next to him. I placed an arm around his shoulders and wiped some of his tears away. He looked at me and then looked away again as he continued to cry. He still wouldn't tell me what was wrong so I just sat there and held him until he calmed down.

"What's the matter Jack?" I asked softly

He sniffed and looked at me "I just… don't like myself."

I knew from how Jack said it, he was trying to downplay how he felt. I hugged him.

"Why not? You're a real great guy and lots of people like you."

"Lots of people _used_ to like me. Back when I was still thin. Now people just pick on me because of my weight and they like you more."

I shook my head "That's ridiculous Jack. How could anyone suddenly like me more?"

"Because… you're the "thin twin." I'm the "fat twin." No one's mean to you or whispers about you because of your weight."

I sighed and hugged him again. I hate seeing him like this. He had complained to me about his weight before but he wasn't this bad about it. It sucks that because of the rest of our family we have to worry about weight problems. But it sucks even more now that Jack seems to have developed some of the same weight issues that our dad, Bam, has had since he was young. Although I don't know just how bad Jack's weight issues are, I still wish I was able to help him with them. We were told before that at one point our dad had become full blown anorexic for a little while. I really hope that Jack doesn't get nearly that bad. For one thing, with us being twins, when Jack's suffering over something I can feel it, and vise versa.

Jack pulled away from me and slowly stood up. He wiped his face on his sleeve and then got some toilet paper to blow his nose. I stood up and went by him and signed.

"You going to be ok?"

He shook his head and signed back "I don't know. I think I'm going to go lie down for a little while, I'm not feeling well now."

I sighed "Alright. You do that and I'll take care of the stilts and your camera."

"Thanks."

He left the bathroom and went into our bedroom. I sighed before leaving to go downstairs. As I started to go downstairs I felt sick to my stomach all of the sudden. I knew it had to be because of what Jack was going through. I also had a feeling that Jack was keeping something from me. I didn't want to think about what it could have been. I just held my stomach until the feeling got better and then I went outside.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four  
by Punk

(Cole's POV)

"I am really starting to hate French!"

I walked into the dining room and looked at my sister who looked about ready to hurl her books across the room. She then proceeded to cuss in French.

"Jacey what the hell is up with you?" I asked walking over to the fridge and getting out a bud light. I popped my beer open and leaned against the counter top watching Jacey.  
"All this fucking homework! I'm fucking sick to death of it! All I want to do is work on my fucking music! I hate this shit!" She screamed in French and then in Finnish.  
I rolled my eyes. "You are so dramatic, Jacey." I spoke to her in Finnish and she groaned.  
"What's going on in here? It sounds like my Isa and my Isaukko arguing...or having sex." Aila said

I laughed out loud and beer almost came out of my nose. Aila grinned and walked over to me. She kissed me and I put my arm around her.

"So Jacey, what is the problem?"  
Jacey sighed. "Aila I have so much to do and..."She glanced at me briefly. Aila caught the look and looked at me. I nodded and left the room.

I went into the living room and sat down on the couch next to Jeremey and Hanna. They were watching some footage we had filmed in Finland, laughing and talking in Finglish to each other. I quickly grew bored and left the room. I walked downstairs to the basement and found Aiden playing with his toys, with Jamie in her baby seat watching him. Josh and Amy were sitting next to them playing along. I sighed and went back upstairs.

As I pasted through the kitchen to throw away my empty beer can, I heard Jacey mention something about "being late" and "just one night". I shook my head, wondering what they could possibly be discussing. I looked down at the mail on the counter and went through it. I pulled out my skate mag and saw a letter for Hanna. But oddly enough, although the return address was Finnish, it wasn't from Ville and Jussi. It was from someone named Eva Linnankivi. Linnankivi, that name sounds strangely familiar. I shook my head and went upstairs with my skate mag.

Chris was sitting on my bed when I came in. "Hey Bro. What's up?"  
"Oh nothing. Just the newest issue of Hellboard." Chris moved over so I could lie down.  
"Cool." He lay down next to me and propped himself up on his elbow. "I heard Jacey swearing in French and Finnish. Everything ok?"  
I nodded. "Yeah, she's just really stressed out." Chris nodded.  
"I miss Corey." He said looking at me.

I nodded. Corey had been staying with Mark more and more. It was hard with our triplet bond. But it was probably the hardest on Chris, because I was with Aila almost all the time.

"I wish it was like when we were 13. No girlfriends or boyfriends. Just us." I nodded again. Chris got up and walked over to my door. "Well I better finish my homework."  
"Yeah, we on for a game of pool tonight?"  
"Definitely." He told me before leaving.

(Chris's POV)

Ahh pool; the only sport in which I could kick Jeremey's ass. That is, until Cole decides to kick mine. Cole is good at everything, and I'm good at absolutely nothing. Well scratch that, I'm good at school, but of course, Cole is better. There is absolutely nothing Cole cannot do. He could make it through my college courses standing on his head.

I on the other hand, well, my freshmen year at college already seemed challenging. And I had yet to figure out my major. I'm actually thinking about journalism now though. I kinda would like to write for a skateboard magazine. How cool would that be?

"Chris you need another beer?" Cole asked me, shaking me from my daydream. "Dude, didja hear me?"  
"What? Yeah, yeah, gimme another one." He handed me a cold one and I took a seat so he could break. "Jey you aint got a chance against Covin."  
"Corin don't call me that. You know I hate that nickname." Cole glared at me and I smirked.

He never liked it when I called him by his "vampire" name. When Cole Corey and I were younger we explored vampirism. Cole "found God" a couple months in and that was basically the end of that. Well, the end of wearing fangs and fantasizing about demons that is. Corey actually came out of the closet to us during our "vampire period". Sometimes we call each other by our vampire names just for fun and to remember what that time was like for us.

"Covin, Corin, and Cobin. You guys were really strange back then." Jey said with a smirk. Cole laughed and drew Jeremey into a head lock. "Ahh. Bam. Bam." Cole and I laughed.  
"What's going on in here?" Jacey asked coming into the room and sitting down on my lap.  
"Ooph. Jacey, you're too big to sit on my lap." I said. Jacey smirked and didn't move. "Seriously, babe."  
"Okay, okay. Jacey get off of Chris. It's no fun when your sister is the only action you ever get." Cole said laughing. Jacey laughed and got off my lap. "You want to play? 'Cause Jey is dead weight."  
"Hey!"

We laughed as Jey handed his pool stick to Jacey and she took her shot. Jacey is just as good as Cole at pool, and it annoys him to no end. It's quite amusing to watch those two go back and forth. And when there's Cole and booze, it's even more amusing.

But one grows tired of watching when it goes on for 2 hours straight. So I went upstairs to my room. I grabbed my notebook from under my bed and started to jot down a poem I had thought of earlier. I didn't realize how late it was until Mom came upstairs to say goodnight. It's kinda a thing in my family. I guess because we never know what's gonna happen so around 10 every night Mom and Dad goes upstairs to say goodnight to all of us.

Mom let Nainen, our chocolate lab, into my room. Nainen likes to sleep either with Mom and Dad or with me. Guess it was my turn tonight.

"Night baby, I love you." Mom said after Nainen was settled next to me at the foot of the bed. "Night, Nainen."  
"Night Mom. Night Dad." I called.

She closed my door and I got up to change my clothes. I got grabbed my laptop and laid down in bed with it. About midnight I turned it off and put it back on my desk. I got into bed and fell asleep thinking about nothing.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

By Pippie

(Aila's POV)

Dusti waved her hand in front of my face before pressing her hand against it. Then she pushed her hand up my face and past my forehead in a very irritating way. She messed up my hair and laughed causing me to glare at her. I fixed my hair and scowled.

"What the fuck was that for?" I asked

"You're like a million miles away. And you've been that way pretty much the whole time you've been here. What's the deal?"

I sighed "Nothing."

"Hmm…"

"I have a lot on my mind right now."

She sat down next to me at the table and moved our books aside.

"Care to talk to me about it?"

I shook my head. She looked at me and rested her elbow on the table with her chin in her hand. I knew she was going to sit there like that, looking at me until I talked to her so I gave in.

"Ok it's about Cole. We've been together for a while and things have been just… great. Don't get me wrong, I do love him and I would like to marry him…" I twisted my engagement ring around my finger

"So what's the problem?"

"He's the only boyfriend I ever had and I never got the chance to really experience things or any one else."

She scooted her chair closer "What are you saying?"

I sighed and looked away for a second "I'm thinking of breaking up with him."

Her face fell and she placed a hand on her chest. She looked like she was trying to figure out what to say first.

"Why?"

"Because… I need to know if he really is the one for me. The only way I can do that is if I dated other guys. I just don't know how to tell Cole."

"Oh wow… Do you think I should talk to him?"

"Dusti no… I couldn't possibly have you do that. This is something I have to do."

She nodded "Ok well if you need any advice or a shoulder to cry on come talk to me."

"Of course I will."

"Ok now… on to our most favorite subject in the world: math." She stuck her tongue out and made a gagging sound which made me laugh

I don't know how she does it but Dusti has always made me feel better by doing almost nothing at all. I guess that's why she's my best friend. The thing is, Cole wasn't the only thing on my mind right then. As if I needed another thing weighing heavy on my mind, here comes Jacey the other day with a secret. Why did she have to choose me to tell this secret to? God Jacey what are you getting yourself into and why must you bring me into it? There was no way that I could possibly tell Dusti the trouble that her cousin was in. There was no way I could tell her or anyone else for that matter (despite the fact that Dusti is my best friend and we tell each other everything), that Jacey is scared that she might be pregnant. I looked at the math book and pretended to be in a better mood.

"I don't know why I need to learn this bullshit. It's not like I'm going to be doing random algebra problems when I'm giving a massage." I rolled my eyes with a smirk

Dusti laughed "And I'm not going to just divide fractions right in the middle of signing a band or something. Just sign there and initial there and… hold on I have to urge to solve this math problem."

We both began to laugh. It's funny how when me and Dusti get together to study or do homework we wind up laughing and goofing around a lot more than we get any actual work done. We _i try /i _to work more than we do though: we have to since I'm planning on being a massage therapist (the one thing our families need the most) and Dusti's trying to make her own record label. Funny how even though we're from famous families we still have to work hard to get to where we want to go. I guess it's all worth it in the end though.

(Hanna's POV)

Jack, Jordan and I laughed loudly as we went inside the house. I don't know why everyone else thinks the twins are so annoying. I never really found them all that annoying to tell the truth. I think they're hilarious and I've always been able to get along with them. Of course they have their annoying moments but who doesn't?

Any way we all grabbed a small snack and Jack headed straight upstairs immediately after. I saw Aila and Dusti sitting at the kitchen table looking like they were trying to give the illusion of studying. Well how they "study" I don't know how they get good grades. They must sit near really smart kids in school or have Cole do their homework for them or something. But then again they're both pretty smart and wouldn't cheat.

I went upstairs to get my backpack from Dusti's room and then I heard something from the bathroom. I paused and turned toward the closed door to listen for a second. I'm not normally nosey like this but what I heard really got me curious and a little concerned. It sounded like Jack was in there crying in between gags. Jack hadn't seemed like he was sick today, and he was just acting perfectly fine downstairs, so hearing this was really strange.

Jordan came up the stairs and passed me. I started to go downstairs and I heard Jordan knock on the bathroom door. I turned slightly to see Jordan enter the bathroom and then I continued back downstairs.

I went over to where Aila and Dusti were and looked at Dusti.

"Hey um… is something going on with your brothers?"

"What do you mean?"

"They're acting kind of weird all of the sudden."

"Like how?"

I told Dusti everything I had just witnessed and she just gave me the strangest look ever. Aila also looked at me strange and then looked at Dusti. Whatever was going on with the twins, if anything at all, neither of us were able to figure out what it could have been. But we just brushed it off and then Aila and Dusti went back to "studying" and I went back outside. I sat on the porch and opened my backpack. From my backpack I pulled out an envelope and then I stared at it and the address that was on it. It was from Eva Linnankivi. I recognized the name only because Papa had told me a few years ago who this person was. Eva is, according to Papa, my mother. I was too nervous to open the envelope because I didn't know what to expect from the letter inside. I didn't even know exactly what I was supposed to be feeling now that I have a letter from her. I never even met her before; I had only heard about her like one or twice. My hands shook so badly that I had to shove the letter back into my backpack. I realized that I was just too scared to open the letter. What am I supposed to do when I'm too scared to open a letter from my mom?


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
by Punk

(Corey's POV)

I got in later then I expected too. Jacey was already home from school and Chris from his classes. They were sitting across from each other at the table, books open, doing their homework.

"Hei. Anyone alive?" I asked as Nainen trotted in and rubbed against my leg. Jacey looked up but remained quiet.

Chris looked up at me and sighed. "Aila and Cole broke up. He's taking it pretty hard."

I nodded my head. I had seen the broken skateboards in the yard and heard how hard my brother had been pounding the ramp he was building. Chris looked at Jacey and then looked back to his books. Jacey put hers away and got up. She went quietly upstairs.

"Cor...Jacey's pregnant."

My jaw dropped. "What?! By who? When?" My head was spinning and I sat down into the chair Jacey had just vacated.  
Chris shook his head. "I don't know, she won't tell me."

I shook my head, my mind spinning with who the father could be. "Do you know if she's seeing anyone?" again Chris shook his head. I sighed. "How are we gonna tell Mom and Dad?" Chris sighed and lit up a cigarette. "Since when do you smoke?" I finally asked.  
"Since I found out my sister is gonna have a kid." His voice was shaking as bad as his hands and he coughed from the smoke. "Cor what the hell are we gonna do? Dad will kill her!"  
"Calm down and put that shit out. Dad's not gonna kill her, maybe her boyfriend, but he loves his little girl too much." I told him trying to remain calm. "Does Cole know?" Chris nodded.

Jacey came downstairs just then. She was carrying an extra backpack and held a sleeping bag. She grabbed her school bag and looked at me "I'm gonna stay with Scarlett for a while. Just, tell Mom and Dad I need to be away for a while."

Scarlett is our cousin, Ava's younger half sister, we didn't know about her till about a year and a half ago. She was five years younger than Ava and lived here in Chester now.

"Jacey, don't do this. Mom and Dad don't have to know. I mean, shit you can hide this from them easily." I walked over and hugged her. "Look, we'll figure out something. Just, give it a few days, ok?" Jacey nodded a little and then looked over at Chris who was still shaking. "Yeah you gotta stay, Chris is more scared then you are."  
"Yeah, not funny." Chris said putting his cigarette out. "But whatever."  
"Keep acting like that and people will think you're the dad. I bet the kid will look just like you too."  
"Hey, Josh looks just like Bam and he aint Bam's kid."  
I laughed. "Yeah that's 'cause Mom Dad Bam and Dico refuse to know Josh's blood test results. He's gonna take who his biological father really is to his grave."  
"Nidiot."  
"Whatever, I'm hungry." Jacey broke the conversion between Chris and I. I laughed to myself and went upstairs.

(Jacey's POV)

I can't look either of my parents in the face now, knowing what happened. I can't believe I was so careless. And now what's worse is that I got my brothers involved. I regret that. Especially having Chris involved. But empathic Chris; I needed his warm comfort. Now he was more worried then I was. I would have to remember to bring him along with I tell my baby's father.

I know who the father is. But I pray no one ever finds out. Especially Josh, because the father is his half brother. That's right, Dico's son. Josh and Dico had a huge falling out before I was born. Now Josh refuses to have anything to do with Dico. Mom is the same way, she never forgave Dico for a lot of things that happened before I was born. I've been secretly dating Dico's son for the past 6 months. I haven't told anyone, I didn't plan too, until we were both 18. Now with the baby it looks like I'll have too.

It's unfair to my unborn baby, who's innocent in all of this. I'm already wondering if it's a boy or a girl. If it's a boy I'm gonna name him Brandan. I will spell it with a "a", kind of a play on my dad's name which is spelled with a "e" and a play on my boyfriend's dad's name and my uncle's name which are both spelled with a "o". If it's a girl I am not naming her Stacy after my boyfriend's mom. I don't like her at all. I think maybe I'll name her Jada, kinda like my name, Jacinta, and my mom's name, Jade.

As for middle names, Brandan's will definitely be David, my boyfriend's middle name. Brandan David Dicamillio. Jada's will be Collynn, carry on the Col middle name that Uncle Bam and mom both have, the Lynn part is for my grandmother on my dad's side. It was her middle name. Jada Collynn Dicamillio.

My thoughts turned briefly to school and sighed deeply. School and pregnancy should not mix. The taunts, the whispers, and rumors. I can hear it all now. I threw myself down onto my bed and turned on the CD player. I closed my eyes listening to one of Jeremey's songs. He called it "Judge" and it was so true for my life right now.

"Unless you are in liege with God,  
Stop being my judge.  
Who are you to tell me that,  
stop being my judge.  
Don't tell me that,  
stop being my judge."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

By Pippie

(Dusti's POV)

The only thing I enjoy about being in Chemistry is the fact that we do different experiments with chemicals. I was setting up the lab equipment with my lab partner for an experiment and I heard the buzzing sounds of my other class mates talking. From what I picked up on, everyone else was excited because there was going to be an announcement very soon about Homecoming week and about who was elected in the king and queen's court and who the king and queen nominees were. Everyone else in the school makes a big deal about the whole homecoming, king and queen, football game and dance, school spirit hoopla, but me and my friends/family just think it's a big joke.

The king and queen's court and homecoming king and queen is just one big popularity contest/ beauty pageant made to showcase the most popular, stuck up, snobby bitches and their popular, stuck up, pretty boy, jerkoff boyfriends. Let me explain the king and queen's court and how the whole king and queen thing works at our school. There are students in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade who are elected by their classmates to be the king's and queen's court. They just basically stand there and look pretty and make the king and queen candidates look even prettier. They also are supposed to represent their class in the homecoming parade. And then the senior guys and girls nominate people from their class to be the candidates for king and queen. During halftime of the homecoming football game the marching band will go onto the field near the 50 yard line and form two lines on either side of it. They will stand there and play a song while the king's and queen's court walks down the middle, escorted by their parents. Then the king and queen candidates and their parents will walk down after them and the candidates will line up in a row in front of the court. From there the king and queen will be crowned by the previous year's king and queen. Everyone loves this ceremony but it makes me want to gag.

I picked up one of the glass beakers we were going to use in the experiment right as the homecoming announcements started. I half listened here and there, only picking up on the good parts. Well what I mean by the good parts is the parts that everyone else was so excited about.

"And now the junior class's queen's court. Kelly Green… Amanda Johnson… Kristy McCoy… Susan Morris… and Jacinta Novak."

Whoa… that was unexpected. I grinned and laughed to myself just thinking about what Jacey's reaction would be. I don't know what she would be groaning more over: the fact that she would have to wear a dress and get all dolled up, the fact that she would have to wear a dress and be all dolled up in front of pretty much the whole town during the parade and during halftime, the fact that she would have to be around girls that she hates with a passion, or the fact that they said her full first name over the PA system for everyone in the school to hear.

"And now the candidates for homecoming queen. Rebecca Cruse…"

Ha typical. She's in every kind of school competition imaginable.

"Michelle Davis…"

Not a surprise there.

"Angela Jackson…"

Only nominated because her mom us the assistant principal. Either that or she had all of her popular little friends vote for her a million times.

"Jessica Lance…"

Gag me.

"And Dusti Margera-Franks."

I dropped the beaker I held in my hand and it shattered all over the floor by my feet. I was completely shocked to where I couldn't move. I wasn't sure if I really heard my name or not. I only snapped out of it for a brief moment when my teacher came up to me with a broom and a dust pan in his hands. He tucked the dust pan under his arm and placed a hand on my shoulder, bringing my attention to him.

"Congratulations Dusti. But next time please pay better attention to the lab equipment."

I blushed slightly and stepped away from him so he could sweep up the broken glass.

"Sorry Mr. Thompson."

I walked over to my desk and sat down. Right then I had the urge to throw up but I held myself together. How in the hell did I manage to get nominated for Homecoming queen? There has to be some sort of mix up, otherwise this is just another one of those "perks" of being famous. Somebody shoot me.

(Andy's POV)

There I was in the hallway, having just stopped at my locker which Jacey nearly punched. I had to try to calm Jacey down while laughing in my head at the same time. I decided to leave her with Jeremey when he showed up to congratulate her, and then I went to find Dusti.

Not far down the hallway Dusti was walking toward me, looking like she was trying to hide from people who were trying to congratulate her. She did not look happy at all; a mixture between upset and very embarrassed. I walked up to her and put my arm around her to pull her aside.

"Hey honey." I kissed her lightly on the forehead

"Andy I want to die."

"Aww no you don't. Hey guess what I heard."

"What?"

"It turns out that I was like three votes away from being a king candidate."

She looked at me with a scowl and then looked away, shaking her head "Lucky bastard."

"You're really hating being nominated aren't you?" I snickered

"Don't make me kick you in the nuts."

"Hey check this out. Jacey is so pissed that when Danielle went up to her to congratulate her, Jacey nearly broke Danielle's tooth."

She grinned and let out a slight laugh "Nice. Too bad I wasn't there to see that."

"Yeah too bad. Hey listen Dust, don't be all upset over this. You got nominated for homecoming queen. Big fucking deal. Seriously is being nominated for homecoming queen really all _that _bad of a thing?"

She sighed "I guess not. It's just I hate people making such a big fuss over me in this way."

"I know hun. But hey, at least you're not alone in this. Jacey's on the junior class queen's court. If anything the two of you can rag on all the other prissy bitches."

She smiled "Yeah you're right. And Jacey and I would have fun doing that. Thanks Andy." She kissed me

"No problem. Oh by the way, since I'm drum major this year, we'll get to be on the field together during half time. And we'll be in the parade together."

"Yeah hey that's right."

The two of us walked down the hallway toward our next classes. She gave dirty looks to people who were dumb enough to try to talk to her about being a queen candidate as they passed by, which made me laugh. I kissed her when we reached the door to her classroom and then I headed down to the band room. I knew that she and Jacey both would be laughing about their misfortune by the time lunch was over today.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
by Punk

(Jeremey's POV)

Jacey wasn't better by lunch like Andy thought she would be. She just sat there, between me and Dusti, staring into her food. She didn't touch it, just stared at it. I was worried about her. Had been for the last few days. I asked her if she was okay and she just kinda shrugged. I was glad when the bell rang, because Jacey looking so terrible caused an awkward silence over our normally buzzing table.

I couldn't get Jacey off my mind for the rest of the day. When the bell finally rang I meant Hanna by my car.

"Do you know what's been up with Jacey?"  
Hanna shrugged her shoulders. "I don't now about Jacey but something is up with Jack and Jordan...Well actually, I think Aila might know about Jacey. But I wouldn't be asking her."

Hanna pointed behind me and my jaw dropped. Aila walked by with a jock guy from our biology class. He played football, I think his name was Shawn Dicamo or something like that. She was holding his hand and giggling. I looked away and tasted vomit. She broke my brother's heart for that?

Hanna put her hand against my arm. "Let's get out of here." I nodded and we went to my car.

Aila's new boyfriend was the talk of band practice that night. I didn't like it at all and eventually I told the guys to shut up about it. But not before I caught what they said about my sister.

"Word is Jacey's been screwing him too." I turned right around.  
"Who?" I asked looking at each of my band mates.  
"Shawn DiCamillo."

My jaw dropped to the floor. Aila's new guy was my sister's boyfriend, and my half brother's father's son. I tasted vomit for the second time that day. I held my stomach and turned away. This was too much. I needed to talk to Josh. But first I needed to see Cole.  
I got home with Hanna faster than legal. I ran straight upstairs for Cole's room, not even bothering to take anything off. My bag with my drum sticks was still strapped around my shoulders when I threw the door to Cole's room open. Cole looked up at me, he was sitting on his bed, wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of black cargo pants. He had his guitar in his hand and a cigarette was sitting on the ashtray by the window.

"What do you want?" He asked.

His dark hair hadn't seen soap or a comb in days, it hung limp and greasy, in his eyes, down on his ears and on his neck.

"Aila is dating Josh's half brother." I said, brushing my dark hair out of my eyes and looking at Cole.  
He sighed. "Yeah, well, whatever. She aint my chick anymore, she can screw who she wants." He took a drag of his cigarette and sat his guitar down next to the bed.  
"There's more, Jacey was dating him before." Cole's eyes widened. "What?"  
"Jey...Jacey's pregnant." He took another drag. "I guess he broke up with her when she broke the news to him."

I shook my head. Jacey was pregnant? This just made things a lot more complicated.

"You got another of those cigs?"

Cole smirked putting out the butt of cigarette. "Nope, I only stole one from Dad's secret stash."  
"A razor, heroin?" I asked quickly. Cole chuckled and shook his head. "Damn, I'm gonna need it after I talk to Josh."  
Cole smirked. "Good luck, bro." I nodded and left the room.

(Josh's POV)

"I have a what?" I asked staring at my youngest brother.  
"A half brother by Dico. He's the father of Jacey's baby and Aila's new boyfriend."  
I growled in disgust. "He's no brother to me. Dico's dead to me. I have no brother but my mother's sons."

That came out cold and cruel. I didn't care. Jeremey knew I wasn't on speaking terms with Dico. I wanted nothing to do with him. And I didn't want to be put in the middle of the mess that was forming.

"But Josh...this is Jacey we're talking about. You've got to do something about this."  
"What can I do? You want me to strangle the runt because he doesn't want to be a father? I have two kids I know what's it like, if he wants to be an ass and not take responsibility then fuck him, Jacey's better off without him."

"I know. But this also about Cole. I mean He's a thousand times better then this guy, and Aila is with him." Jeremey looked at me pleadingly.  
"Alright what is it you want to me do? Convince Shawn, or whatever his name is, to be a father to his baby so Aila will come running back to Cole? I doubt it will work that way. Besides, I've told you a million times, I am not associating myself with Dico."  
"Dico's sins are not the sins of his son. And you're his son as well. Josh please. For Jacey and Cole."  
I sighed finally giving in. "Fine, I'll talk to him. But don't expect anything to come out of it." I got up and Jeremey gave me a small smile. I frowned and left the room.  
"Where are you going?" Amy asked coming up to me. She held Jamie close and Aiden followed behind her.  
"I'll be back soon. I have to see to something." I kissed my wife and my kids and then I left.

I sighed to myself remembering something. If Shawn was Dico's son, then he was Aila's cousin as well as my half brother. Aila's mother had been my aunt by my biological father. I doubt Jeremey had realized this, but it gave me a good reason to get involved. It took all I had in me to knock at Dico's apartment. I just about threw up when he opened the door.

"Josh? What are you doing here?"  
"We need to talk." He let me in and I didn't waste any time. "Why didn't you tell me about Shawn?"  
Dico looked away. "I um...I didn't think you wanted to know about him."  
"Damn right. But I got no choice now. Shawn got my sister pregnant. And now he's dating his cousin." I crossed my arms  
"What?" Dico looked at me. "But why do you care?"  
"This is about Jacey and Aila. I doubt that Shawn and Aila know they are cousins. As for Jacey, your bastard isn't gonna just knock my sister up and leave."  
"Hey, your brother isn't a bastard."  
"But I am. Look, I'd rather not even be here, but obviously I am. Now you need to talk to your son, because other wise my brothers will be looking for him." I went over to the door and left without waiting for a response.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter nine

By Pippie

(Jordan's POV)

I was upstairs with Jack, looking over some footage we shot over the weekend. There was one part on the tape that I had no idea that was filmed. Sometimes Jack films things and people don't notice it until afterwards; he's real sneaky that way. But what little bit he did film in this one part looked like a music video in the making. It was a little bit of Jeremey's band during practice.

We stopped the tape once Jack said he heard someone come in downstairs. We left our room and hung out on the stairs to see who it was.

Josh had come over looking pretty upset. Right away he found our dads and asked to talk to them in private. Jack and I thought this was strange since Josh hardly ever comes over here by himself, especially when he's upset like this. Another thing that seemed strange was, Aila saw Josh and quickly walked past him and went upstairs to Dusti's room. (After Aila and Cole broke up, she started staying with us and she now shares Dusti's room.) Aila seemed like Josh was one of the last people she wanted to see right now, but Jack and I couldn't think of any reason why other than seeing Josh made her think of Cole.

Jack and I moved down the steps and sat where we would be closer to the action, but where we wouldn't be noticed. I tried to listen to what was being said between Josh and our dads but they were being too quiet for me. Jack signed whatever words he picked up on to me.

Jack watched the three of them and listened carefully. At one point he stopped signing to me and he got a really confused look on his face. I tried asking him what was going on but he just sat there staring at them. After a minute Jack looked at me, still confused and signed.

"I don't get it."

"Get what?" I signed back "What were they saying?"

He just shook his head and looked back at them. We watched Josh leave and then Aila came back downstairs. She grabbed her jacket and went out the back door, probably to have a smoke. Jack looked at me and signed what he heard. It made no sense to me because he only was able to pick up a few things that were said.

"Dico… secret… son… father… Bam…"

We sat there on our steps and tried to make sense of it. After throwing out a few different possibilities we looked at each other. It seemed like we knew exactly what the other one was thinking at the moment. We were horrified and disgusted at the thought we had. We didn't have to say a word to each other; we just stood up and slowly made our way down the rest of the steps toward our dads. We had to find out what was going on. We had to find out if what we thought was true or not. We had to find out if our cousin really was our half brother. I knew that both of us would not be able to sleep tonight if it was true.

(Jack's POV)

Jordan and I signed to each other in our own "twin sign language" so no one else would know what we were saying. Jordan gave me a little shove in the direction of where our dads were.

"Go ask!" He signed

"You go ask!" I signed back

"I can't ask them!"

"Well neither can I!"

"Do you want to find out the truth?"

"Yeah I do."

"Then go ask!"

"Alright but you're coming with me."

"Ok deal."

We both took a deep breath and walked over to the couch where Bam and Jimmy were.

"Dad?" I asked nervously

Bam and Jimmy both looked up at me and Jordan.

"What is it?" Asked Bam

"Well um… we sort of overheard some things that were said between you and Josh…"

"Things like what?" Jimmy asked

I looked at Bam and swallowed. I hoped that I didn't look pale because I felt a little sick right then.

"Dad… are you… are you Josh's father?"

They both sat back and their faces fell. Jimmy rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from us while Bam looked in the other direction. It looked like Bam was going through a million thoughts at once.

"Dad?" Jordan asked

Bam looked up "Hey Dusti come here and bring Kayla with you. This is very important."

Our dads sat up straight as Dusti came into the room with Kayla. Jordan and I sat on the floor across from our dads and Dusti sat in the chair next to the couch. She pulled Kayla onto her lap and held onto her as she looked at them.

"Kids I think it's time to tell you the truth. The _real_ truth." Bam cleared his throat and looked at us individually. He signed as he spoke just for Jordan's benefit "Listen you guys might have heard before about this one secret in the family. The secret being Josh's biological father is either Dico or myself. Well what I want to tell you guys, the absolute truth, is something that only a few of us even know about, not including Aunt Jade. And I only told Dad about the truth shortly after Kayla was born."

"Just tell us Dad." Dusti said

"Ok well first of all you guys… really pay attention to Josh when you're around him. Like look closer at him and check out certain mannerisms he has even. You hear all the time how much he looks like me right?" We all nodded "Well you kids aren't really around Josh enough to really tell who he looks like. When you guys are around him it's usually for brief visits since he's pretty busy. But Aunt Jade has always sworn up and down that he looks just like me. People just agree with her because, well, I guess it's easier. I think she even has Josh convinced that he looks just like me. But the truth is, he doesn't. Sure you can tell that he would be related to me but only because he's my sister's son. I just think Jade tries to believe that he looks just like me because she secretly wishes that I was his father. Which, to be honest, makes me ill to think about. Don't ask me why she believes incest is right; I don't care to know. But the fact is, she does and I don't. I think she's really the only other one in the family who does." He paused as though to think some more about what he was going to say "The thing is… everyone else, who doesn't know the real truth, believes that I could be Josh's father. But I never, ever slept with Jade. I love my sister, believe me, but the love between me and Jade is, was and forever will be only the kind of love that family members share with each other and not any other kind of love. No matter how Jade feels."

"Then… why do people say you could be Josh's father? Aunt Jade even says you slept together." I asked

"Because… the story that everyone was told is; one night a bunch of us were partying. Jade, me, Dico and Ryan Gee stayed up the longest and kept drinking and stuff. And somehow Jade wound up sleeping with Dico and me, and Jade even woke up in my bed. And then shortly after that night Jade found out that she was pregnant. It is true that she woke up in my bed but that's all that happened between the two of us. Here's the real story about what happened that night. The four of us were really drunk that night, Jade was the drunkest and a bit high. But at one point I got a call from one of my ex-girlfriends saying that she really missed me and wanted to see me. Being that I was drunk, I left right away. Dico and Gee even knew that I left, they watched me leave and I even told them I'd be back. But Jade didn't know that I left. She, while I was gone, slept with Dico and Gee and then passed out in my bed immediately after. She also must have thought that Gee was me… don't ask me how though. I came home much later and crawled in my bed and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow, so I had no clue that Jade was there. When we woke up the next morning she started freaking out, thinking that we had slept together. But I remembered what had happened and tried explaining to her about the night before. Dico and Gee even tried telling her the truth. But she just would not be convinced otherwise. She was freaking out so bad that she was just hysterical, so we just gave up trying to tell her the truth and let her believe what she believed. Because to her, once she's right she's right."

"Why'd you let her believe you slept together?" Jordan asked

"We had to because of how hysterical she got, plus she kept fighting and fighting with us so we had no choice but to give into her. You know how dramatic Jade gets, well back then when she was strung out on drugs all the time, she was 50 times worse. Any way back when Dusti was still a baby, Jade and Novak told Josh that I very possibly could have been his father, but they didn't want to know for sure. Dico and I both knew that I wasn't Josh's father. One day Dico and I explained to Josh about everything. He agreed to keep it between us for his mother's sake. Well when he and Dico took the blood test, I went with them with a sample of Gee's blood. Gee had some of his blood drawn in secret so Jade wouldn't know. Josh, Dico, Gee and I got together to look at the test results. Jade never wanted to know the results of the test and we all vowed to never tell Jade who the father is, or even the truth about the night she got pregnant. Another thing is, even though I said that I think she wants me to be Josh's father, part of her also wants Dico to be. But Dico, even though he wants to be Josh's father, felt like he had to do something to make Josh and Jade to hate him so he wouldn't have to be around them. That way he wouldn't be able to spill everything to Jade. So despite all that, everyone else is going to believe Dico is Josh's father."

"So… who's Josh's father?" Dusti asked

Bam took a deep breath and thought for a second. Jimmy looked at him and quietly told him that he could tell us.

"Ok this never leaves this room. I'm dead fucking serious about this."

"We promise we will never tell anyone outside this room." Jordan said, and me and Dusti nodded in agreement

"But please just tell us, the suspense is killing us." I added

"Ok. Josh's biological father is Ryan Gee."

Our eyes widened for a moment and then returned to normal.

"Wow…"Jordan said softly

"You know… now that you mention it Josh does kind of have similar features as him. But I guess I never paid attention to it before." Stated Dusti

"Yeah… ok so the only ones who knew the truth is Dico, Gee, Josh, and all of us in this room." Jimmy said

"Right. And that's the way it's going to be." Added Bam

After a few minutes of us letting everything that was said wash over us, Jordan Dusti and I went up to Dusti's room to talk. On one hand we couldn't believe what our dad told us, but on the other hand we all agreed that it made perfect sense. The real life soap opera that is our family just got one more soap opera like twist to it.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10  
by Punk

(Chris's POV)

I heard Josh and Amy talking when Josh finally got home. Josh sounded really upset. It was pretty unnerving, but I wasn't about to waltz in and ask what was wrong. I figured whatever it was, Josh would deal with it himself. I went back to my books and tried to finish my homework.

Jeremey came in a few minutes later from band practice. He actually did go in and ask what was going on, but I didn't hear Josh's answer. I feel so out of the loop now. It seems like everyone else knows everything that is going on except me. Maybe it's the fact I'm so focused on college right now.

When Cole and Corey got in Josh called me into the living room. I sat down between my brothers and looked at Josh. "Alright, look." Josh began. "Y'all know that Mom has told us that she and Bam slept together and that I'm the possible result of that." I glanced at Cole and Corey who grimaced a little. "But, that's not true. None of it is." He began to tell us what he had apparently kept from us for a long time.

Cole's jaw dropped open and Corey let out a deep breath. Jeremey was focused intently on Josh and Jacey was picking her nail polish. Amy sat there listening, seemingly acting as though what Josh was saying was no surprise.

"So, my real father is Ryan Gee." Josh finished.  
Corey let out a snicker and brushed his hair out of his eyes. "All these years, Mom is gonna blow a fuse when you tell her."  
Cole smirked. "Well, at least I know my brother and my wife aren't related. That is...if she'll ever be my wife." He tore a thick chip of black nail polish off one of his fingernails.  
"Yeah well, that doesn't solve my problem." Jacey spoke up. "The father of my baby is still dating Aila."  
"Well, at least you know the father of your baby isn't your half brother's half brother." Jeremey told her.  
"Yeah well, I'd kinda like my problem dealt with." Jacey told us.  
"Sue him. Now that we know he isn't related to us, there's no problem suing his ass for child support. Which you don't need but, you've got that on him." I told her and my brothers all nodded.  
"Yeah, Chris has a good point." Josh agreed. "Just one more thing, we've got to tell Mom and Dad everything."  
Jacey groaned and buried her face into the chair. "Noooooooo." She whimpered.  
"Jacey, don't worry. We're all here for you." Amy told her gently. Jacey sighed and nodded. Just then we heard the door get knocked on.  
"I'll get it." I got up and went to answer the door.

There stood a girl about Jacey's height in a red mini skirt and a black top. She had our cousin Ava's blonde hair and blue eyes. I knew her instantly.

"Hey Scarlett."  
"Hey Chris." She threw her arms around me and kissed my cheek. "Mom and Dad kicked me out. Think it will be cool with A. Jay and Uncle Nov if I stay here?"  
I nodded, hugging her back. "Yeah, sure come in." I let her in and closed the door behind her.  
"Scarlett!" Amy yelled getting up and running over to her. "Oh I'm so glad your here. You can finally meet Aiden and Jamie!"

Scarlett is our uncle Jess's youngest daughter, and Ava's younger half sister. Ava's mother, Kelly, died when Ava was five years old. After Kelly died Jess married Amy Lee of Evanescence and they had Scarlett shortly afterwards.

"Amy, I'm so glad to see you." Scarlett hugged Amy back. "Where are my little cousins? I can't wait to see them!" She and Amy went upstairs to get Aiden and Jamie.  
Cole Corey and I looked at each other and snickered. "So, Jess and Amy kicked her out? What for, do you think?" Cole asked.  
I shrugged. "I don't know, but she is shit hot."  
"Chris!" Corey slugged my shoulder. "Come on! That's our _cousin_!"  
"Easy for you to say, you're gay." I turned to Cole. "You're in love with Ville's daughter. And Jeremey," I turned to my younger brother. "You're in love with Hanna."  
Jeremey's face instantly turned red. "I am not! We're just friends!"  
I ignored him with a smirk. "Jacey, you're pregnant with Dico's kid's kid. And we all know Andy and Dusti are secretly in love."  
"Which sucks for you, Corey, because everyone knows you've always had a crush on Andy." Cole said with a laugh.

(Corey's POV)

"Yeah so, Andy aint my cousin. Besides he aint my type any more. By the way, Mark is coming over later." My brothers and sister all shared a laugh.  
"Who aint your cousin?" Mom asked then coming in the door with Dad behind her.  
"Hey Mom, Hey Dad, Scarlett got kicked out. She's staying here, that ok?" Josh asked.  
"Yeah, sure. Jacey can you help us with the groceries?" Dad told her. She winced.  
"I'll do it, Dad." Amy said as she came down with Aiden in her arms.

Scarlett followed Amy, holding Jamie. Amy calling him that always made Dad wince just a little. Josh took Aiden from Amy and Jamie from Scarlett. Amy and Scarlett followed Mom and Dad back outside.

"So when do we tell them?" Jeremey asked looking at Jacey and Josh.  
"Over dinner." Josh said putting his kids in the playpen.  
"Corey, some sexy punk guy is here for you." Scarlett said with a smirk coming in.  
Mark followed her. "Hey love." I ran into his arms and kissed him. "You guys got it down here?" I looked at my brothers. Chris and Cole smirked and nodded.

I grabbed Mark by the belt loop and lead him upstairs. As soon as we were safely in my room with the door locked I started kissing him. He kissed me back; his hands gliding down the length of my body.

"We don't have much time." He whispered in my ear before undoing my jeans.

By the time we were finished and came downstairs, supper was on the table. We took a seat next to each other and started to eat.

"Um, Mom, Dad. Jacey and I both have something to tell you." Josh said looking up from his food.

I looked over at Mom who glanced briefly at Amy before turning her attention to Josh.

"I guess I'll tell you what I have to tell you first." Dad looked Josh, his gaze cloudy. "Um... Ryan Gee is my biological father."  
I half expected Mom to faint but she merely smirked and shook her head. "You know for sure?" she asked, shocking all of us with how calm she was.

Josh nodded. He started to explain but Dad stopped him.

"Look, like I've told you time and time again. I don't care who your biological father is. I'm your real father and that's all that matters."  
"And, whatever Bam said about what happened that night, doesn't matter either. I was fucked up that night, so this really doesn't surprise me that much. I'm just as glad as you are to find out my brother isn't the father of my child. So...Jacey what do you have to tell us?"

I can't believe my mom can be that calm...but then again, my mother has pretty much a split personality.

"Well um...Dico does a have a son, his name is Shawn." She paused. "And he's the father of my baby."

Dad dropped his fork along with his jaw. Jacey winced. Mom sighed putting her hand over her eyes and shaking her head.

"Jacey..." Dad sighed and got up. He went upstairs quickly.  
"Baby girl...We'll talk about this later." Mom got up and followed Dad upstairs.  
Jacey looked like she was about to cry. I sighed. "Well...at least the food is good." I was met with a slap to the back of the head from Cole.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter eleven

By Pippie

(Aila's POV)

I lay on my stomach across Dusti's bed and watched as my sister and Dusti gathered and picked through different clothes. Since Dusti wasn't going to wear a girly fancy frilly gown like the other girls were going to wear for homecoming court, Hanna decided to help her pick out a cute, yet dressy, outfit for her to wear. Dusti wasn't just doing this to rebel but also because she wanted to be comfortable and feel more like herself while she goes on display in front of the whole town.

"I dunno," Dusti said as she tossed a couple articles of clothing aside "I don't think any of this is going to work."

"Yeah…" Hanna stood up "But don't worry I'll put together something for you."

That's Hanna for you. She loves to put together outfits and creating clothes for herself and other people. She's real good at it too, and plans on creating her own clothing line and possibly have her own clothing store one day. She knows exactly what will fit a person's style. Hanna has even made outfits, with some help from Andy on the sewing here and there, for all of us.

Dusti sat on the bed next to me and picked up an old magazine. When I say old I don't mean one from a few months ago, I mean one from before any of us were born, 2002 I think. She began to flip through it and paused on a page and smiled.

"Hey! I think I found something!"

Hanna and I looked at the page that she held her finger on. There was a picture of Kelly Osbourne on it and she looked real cute. Hanna smiled broadly.

"That would look so good on you Dusti! I can easily duplicate that outfit for you."

Dusti threw her arms around Hanna's shoulders "Oh thank you Hanna!"

The outfit that Hanna said she'd duplicate for Dusti really did seem like it would look cute on Dusti. It was a red, white and black striped blazer with a plain white top underneath, a black velvet pleated knee-length skirt, and a pair of plain black shoes with I'd say a three-inch heel, and one strap going across the top of the foot. Dusti probably also could style her hair how Kelly had in the picture; all messy and spiked out towards the back.

"Ok enough about clothes." Dusti said before looking at me "So Aila… what's going on with you and that one guy you're dating?'

"Shawn? We're not dating any more."

"Oh why not?" Hanna asked

"Well… with some inadvertent help from Josh, Shawn and I discovered that his father and my mother are brother and sister so… that brought things to a really weird and icky place."

Dusti and Hanna both shuddered.

"Yeah I guess that would be… well I guess weird doesn't quite describe it." Dusti said with a grimace

I nodded "Well we really weren't all that serious any way."

Dusti and I looked at each other for a second before turning our attention to Hanna. She looked up at us.

"What?"

"Why don't you tell us about Jeremey, sis?" I smirked

"Why him? We're not dating."

"No of course not." Dusti grinned

"We're not! Why does everyone think that about us?"

"Because ever since the summer the two of you have been together all the time."

"So? We're friends. That's all."

"Uh huh." Dusti and I said together

"Whatever. Dusti and Andy are always together and no one even says anything about them."

"Everyone knows he's my boyfriend and we don't try to hide the fact that we're together."

I couldn't help but to snicker. Hanna reached over and pinched me on the arm.

"Ow! You should file your nails more often." I said while rubbing the spot where I got pinched. She stuck her tongue out at me

"Ok so Aila… besides Shawn, have you dated anyone else since you and Cole broke up?" Asked Dusti

I thought for a second. I didn't know if I could tell them or not. It wasn't _that_ big of a secret, and I know they would understand… But this was just something I didn't want to get around.

"Well… we weren't really _dating_… but we did sort of have a date…" I looked away

"Who was it?" They both asked

"Kerry…"

"Kerry who? That guy Kerry Hodges in the 11th grade?"

"Um… no not that Kerry. It was um… Kerry Glomb." I looked up at them nervously

They both looked a little puzzled for a second.

"You mean… Tim Glomb's daughter?" Hanna asked. I nodded my head

"So…" Dusti started "You had a date with another girl?"

I nodded again "We made out afterwards too…"

"Does this mean you're bi?" Asked Hanna

"Well… no. It just means I made out with another girl. Kerry and I got to talking one day; it was shortly after Cole and I broke up and before I started dating Shawn. We were talking about what it would be like to be with a girl. So one thing led to another and we went on a date and I went to her house afterwards and… we kissed… and… it just sort of happened from there."

They both looked at me a little stunned. Dusti looked like she was trying to figure out what to say first.

"Ok so… you went out on a date and made out just to see what it was like… so um… did you enjoy it?"

"Well… at the time we both enjoyed it. But after that night we talked to each other about it and, well, we realized that it wasn't right for us."

"Wait… you both enjoyed it but you're straight? How does that work?"

"I don't know… it's just the more I and Kerry talk about it the less sense it makes to us. But the thing is, we were curious, we experimented, and we found out it wasn't right for us."

I know it might sound kind of weird the way I put it, but that is how it worked for me and Kerry. We're both straight, and I know that you're either born straight, gay or bi, and you can't choose which one to be. But nothing says that you can't experiment if you're curious, especially if you don't know for sure which one you are. I'm just glad that I'm able to discuss these things with my best friend and sister.

(Hanna's POV)

I let what Aila said about her and Kerry wash over me for a minute. It was a little weird that they experimented like that but not as weird as the fact that she didn't say anything to me about it before now. The only reason why I think Aila might not have told me about it is because she probably was embarrassed. I decided to change the subject a little.

"Hey Aila I saw you talking to that Eric guy by your locker the other day."

"Oh yeah…" She blushed slightly

"Oooooooh…" I and Dusti said together

"Who's Eric?" Dusti asked with a smirk

"He's just a guy in one of my classes. It's no big deal."

"You like him don't you?" I asked

"Well… maybe…" She blushed a little more

"You like him!" Dusti chimed

"Alright I do like him."

"Ask him out!" I said

"I couldn't do that… we barely know each other and we only talked a couple times."

"Well at least give him your number."

"Yeah you should give him your number Aila!"

"All right I'll give him my number."

"Great." I patted her on the shoulder "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom."

I giggled and got up to leave the room. I went to the bathroom and saw that the door was open a little but someone was in there. I peeked in and saw Jack looking at himself in the mirror. He ran his hands down his stomach and sucked it in a little. He then frowned and looked away from the mirror and went over to the toilet. As gross as it was, I couldn't help but watch as Jack forced himself to throw up.

"Jack…" I whispered

Jack heard me and turned to look at me with a frightened look.

"H-Hanna! Go away!"

I jumped back and closed the door. For a second I just stood there staring at the door before I went back to Dusti's room. Dusti and Aila looked up at me as I just stood there by the door.

"Hanna what's wrong?"

"I… caught Jack…"

"Caught him doing what?" Dusti asked, concerned

"I caught him… in the bathroom… He made himself… puke."

"He did what?" Dusti looked horrified

"I made myself puke, ok?"

We all looked and were surprised to see Jack standing there in the doorway behind me. He looked kind of scared and had tears in his eyes.

"It's not the first time I did it either. I'm not proud of it at all so you can't say anything about it. Especially to our dads, Dusti."

"Wh-why have you been doing this?"

"I…" He shook his head and fought back his tears "Please just don't say anything about it. Promise me you won't, please?"

"Ok we promise Jack." Dusti said. Aila and I nodded together

"You have our word." I said

"Thank you."

Jack turned and walked away. Dusti, Aila and I all looked at each other. Neither of us knew what to say. I brought my backpack over and opened it. I had to get our minds off of Jack. I pulled out the still unopened envelope.

"I uh, got a letter from my mother a couple weeks ago."

"Wait, you got a letter from your mother and you didn't tell us?" Aila asked

"Well you didn't tell me about Kerry!"

"Oh…"

"What did your mom say?" Dusti questioned

"I… didn't open it yet."

"You had the letter for a couple weeks and you didn't open it?"

"I was scared!" I paused "Alright I'll open it now."

They watched as I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. I began to read the letter and wanted to slap myself for being too scared to open it until now. All my mom was saying in the letter was that she bet that I would be real grown up now and that she wanted to come visit me for Christmas. I told Dusti and Aila that and they laughed, saying to me that they couldn't believe that I kept myself from reading that. Man I feel stupid.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12  
by Punk

(Jacey's POV)

"So Jacey, how about this one?" Scarlett and I were lying on my bed looking through magazines for my dress I was wearing to homecoming.  
"No way. It's gotta be black and it has to go with fishnets and my preggers belly." I said laughing slightly. We flipped through a few more pages.  
"What color fishnets? Black, purple," She grinned, "Scarlett?"  
I laughed. "Well yeah scarlet red."  
"Okay, so what about this dress?" It was strapless with a hook and eye corset style closer around the bust and a plain black skirt. It was higher wasted, prefect for my baby belly.  
"I love it. Think Hanna can do that? I know my mom has a corset like that. Oh I should give her my red fishnet shirt, she could sew it into the dress." Scarlett laughed as I babbled on about the dress.  
"Guess you'll make Shawn sorry he ever dumped you. You'll be the hottest thing on two legs that night."  
I blushed. "I'm kinda praying he asks me to the dance. I mean I feel like I'm gonna be the only one that night without a date. Even though Shawn is a complete asshole. My brothers are even chaperoning, and they probably have dates. Well, Corey definitely does."  
Scarlett giggled again. "I know Chris has one."  
"Who?" I looked at her wide eyed. She simply shook her head. "Come on, tell me!"  
"I'm not telling."

Scarlett smirked and turned back to the open magazine. I groaned and went back to looking at magazines with her. After awhile Scarlett got up and put the magazines back under my bed.

"Well, I'm bored to death. Let's go over to Uncle Bam's."  
"Okay, but you have to help me off the floor." I grinned as Scarlett helped me up. "Ugh, I'm not going anywhere like this." I was wearing a pair of Chris's jeans and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, a hand-me-down from Josh. My dark raven hair was up in a messy pony tail and my black eye makeup was smeared everywhere.  
"Well, let's find you a pair of clothes that still fit."

I had gained some weight already and I was only 2 and half months pregnant. I'm sorta thinking I might be carrying twins, I'll find out soon though. I made up my mind to tell Dusti and Hanna when we got there. Scarlett was going through my closet. I envied her a little bit. She was about 2 inches taller then me, dirty blonde with bright blue eyes, and she had a style similar to mine. Right now she was wearing a black dress with pink fishnet sleeves and pink fishnet tights with black knee high boots. Those were my boots actually, she has a similar pair, but ever since she's moved in we've been sharing everything. Well, at least everything I can fit in to.

"Here, Jacey."

She handed me a camouflage mini skirt and black HIM t-shirt. I changed quickly and put on my black adios with black fishnet knee highs. I sat down so she could fix my makeup. Her makeup was always prefect, right now she had on pink eye shadow and black eyeliner, and it looked great on her. She wiped off the remaining black eye shadow I had put on and replaced it with dark green and redid my eyeliner. When she was done, she combed my hair out and left it limp around my shoulders. I eventually started to cry.

"Jacey?"  
"Scarlett, I'm sorry. It's just, you doing this for me, and hormones." She hugged me quickly. The tears left a cool line pattern of black and green down my face.  
"What are cousin's for Jacey? Now come on, I really want to see Dusti." She helped me up and we left.

(Cole's POV)

"Hey Cole. Chris, Mark and I are going drinking tonight. You in?"

I looked up from the ramp I was putting together and nodded. "Hell yeah. I'll meet you at 8." Corey grinned and left me alone.

I both hated and loved being alone these days. As far as I am concerned my life is shit. I miss Aila more then anything. Aila made me complete, more then I want to admit. I suppose my parents were right when they told me that I've loved Aila her whole life, because I've been with her as far back as I can remember. Now, I just don't feel right.

"Hey Cole!" Jacey called from the driveway as she and Scarlett were getting into Scarlett's car.

I got up and walked over to them. "Hey, where are you two going?" I leaned on the open door looking in at my sister and my cousin.  
"Over to Dusti's." Jacey winced a little as she said it.  
"Oh." I said quietly, knowing that they were going to be with Aila as well as Dusti.  
"Hey, you know homecoming is soon, right?" Scarlett piped up. "And you know that Aila will obviously be going."  
"Yeah I know, but how do you know?" I looked at my cousin. Scarlett had dropped out of school not long ago.  
"Because I've been helping Jacey, anyway, why not ask Aila to homecoming? Or don't ask her, just show up with a dozen red roses or something. Actually fight to get your woman back, cuz!"

Jacey grinned over what Scarlett told me, placing her hands on her swollen stomach.  
I couldn't help but grin myself.

"Damn Scarlett, you're good. But you have to help me. Find out if Aila likes anyone, and tell me so I can make sure she doesn't have a date that night, alright? If I'm gonna win her back, everything needs to be perfect, no little preps messing it up. Plus I can't stand the thought of any other guy's hands on my chick."  
Jacey laughed. "So she's your chick again, Cole?"  
"Well not yet, but she will be mine again. Soon."  
"I'll help you, Cole. I miss seeing you two together. Mostly I miss seeing you skate like a mother fucker because you've been skating like shit lately, and that ramp your building looks like shit and boards stuck together." Jacey again and Scarlett grinned at me.  
I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm empty inside without Aila. I can't do anything right."  
"And you've been drinking like an alcoholic." Jacey added and I felt my face grow hot.  
"Alright, Cole if I'm going to help you, promise me you'll stay away from the bottle, okay?"

Scarlett stared right at me. I nodded and said goodbye to them. Walking back to the house I thought up a million ways I could make homecoming night with Aila special, but one thing was absolutely clear to me, I was NOT going drinking tonight.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

By Pippie

(Andy's POV)

The only reason why I came into this store is because of Dusti. She says that since she has to get all dressed up for homecoming then so do I. Otherwise the two of us wouldn't even give a shit about homecoming, especially the dance. So now here I am in the clothing store trying on suit jackets because of my girlfriend and I keep looking in the mirror at myself and I keep cringing. I am so uncomfortable right now.

Dusti and I are dressing up but not in a very traditional way. Most guys would be wearing real nice expensive suits or even tuxes. But not me. The suit jacket alone is uncomfortable enough for a simple hippie guy like me. Maybe I'll sew patches into it or something like that. I picked out a royal blue jacket, because Dusti would love the color, and I'm going to wear either a lighter blue or lavender dress shirt underneath, with a pair of black dress slacks that I'm turning into bellbottoms. I gotta have my own flair somehow.

I paid for my jacket and left the store fast. Another minute in that store and I probably would have gone insane. Like the bad kind of insane. In the parking lot I saw Chris standing by his car hitting on some girl. And of course he was parked right next to me so I had to go over there to witness it up close regardless. When I got there he looked at me and cocked an eyebrow. He spied the garment bag I held over my shoulder and then he looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh.

"They actually let hippies like you go into stores like that?"

"Why not? They let sleazeball skater Goths like you go in there."

"Touché."

"So," I nodded toward the girl he was talking to before I got there "Who's this innocent girl you're trying to corrupt?"

"I actually haven't gotten her name yet." He blushed a little

The girl turned to face me and I couldn't believe my eyes. She looked so familiar. Like almost scary familiar. I didn't know her but I felt as though I should have, like we were connected somehow. I knew exactly what made her seem so familiar to me. Her long wavy strawberry blonde hair, her blue eyes, her upturned nose, even her almost sheepish grin made her look like a younger, very feminine version of my dad Ryan. I guess I must have been staring at her because of the look she got on her face.

"What?" She asked a little offended

"Oh I'm sorry I… you just remind me so much of someone I know. Do I know you or have we met before?"

"Hmm I don't know. Come to think about it you look a little familiar to me too." She paused and then her face lit up "Oh! Hold on!"

She quickly opened her purse and began to rummage through it. A few seconds later she pulled out a small photograph and handed it to me. I looked at the picture and became confused.

"Why do you have a picture of my dads in your purse? Are you like a really, really big fan or something?"

"No. Ryan Dunn is my father. I've been looking for him."

My eyes widened as I looked at her "Oh wow… I thought you looked like him but… wow…" I swallowed and felt my head spin "Y-you're my sister!"

We stood there silent and in disbelief, looking at each other for a moment. There was so much awkward tension between the two of us because neither of us knew what to say. Chris, I guess, decided it was up to him to break the silence.

"Dude! I was trying to put the moves on your sister! What are the odds?"

We looked over at him and he just stood there with a big grin. We couldn't help but laugh out loud, causing Chris to laugh as well. Once we stopped laughing Chris decided to leave and then my sister and I began talking. It was so strange and cool at the same time as we talked. Soon we both decided to go back to my house so we could surprise my dads, and so she could finally meet her dad in person. I admit that I had butterflies in my stomach on the way home. This has officially become the craziest day of my life, and the biggest surprise of my life. I don't think that even Ryan knew that I had an older sister.

(Dusti's POV)

I hung up after talking to Andy and I had no idea what to do. I didn't know whether to scream, cry, laugh, or maybe a mixture of all three. I didn't even know that my hands were shaking until Aila steadied them with her hands.

"Dusti what's the matter? What were you and Andy talking about? It's got to be something really incredible by the way it sounded."

"Oh man… oh man Aila this is big."

"Just tell me!"

"Andy just found out that he has an older sister."

Aila's eyes got so huge that it almost made me laugh. Her eyes returned to normal size but she had the most confused expression.

"Older sister?"

"Yeah he met her by chance today. Chris was trying to hit on her in a parking lot." I laughed

"Oh of course he was. She could be 90 years old, wearing a diaper, would be on oxygen, with barely a heartbeat and Chris would still hit on her." She rolled her eyes. We both began to laugh "So… a sister huh?"

"Yeah. Her name is Amanda Jennings and she's just a few months older than the triplets. She's Dunn's daughter so… Dunn slept with her mother sometime before he even was with Raab."

"Wow the soap opera never ends."

"Ha nope."

We both began to laugh. Aila grabbed my arms and I grabbed hers and we went into a spontaneous jump-and-scream thing. My dad, Jimmy, heard us scream and he came into my room to see what was going on. We didn't tell him why we were screaming, because in all honesty we had no idea why. Jimmy just rolled his eyes and shook his head. He told us to keep it down because Kayla was taking a nap and then he walked away.

"So… this Amanda girl… She's actually Andy's sister?"

"Well yeah. Andy said there's no way you could deny the fact that Dunn is her father."

Aila grinned "Then that would make her your sister-in-law."

"Andy and I aren't getting married. We haven't even talked about marriage. We're too young for it any way."

"Yeah, well, try telling Cole that last part." She looked down "That was the main reason why I broke up with him. He doesn't think we're too young to get married but I do. He wanted us to get married in August, a whole two months after I graduate high school. No way! I can't graduate from high school and then turn around and get married! I want to go through college first. But Cole has this "it's now or never, why wait" attitude." She sighed

I put my hand on her shoulder "Ai I think if that's how you feel then you did right by breaking up with him now. The two of you should wait to get married. It's a huge step that shouldn't be rushed."

"That's what I tried telling Cole but he basically pushed me to get engaged." She sighed again "I don't want to talk about this right now."

"Alright." I paused "So… you going with anyone to homecoming?"

"Well actually Cole called me yesterday and asked if I'd go with him."

"What did you say?"

"I said no. I'm already going with someone else."

I looked at her "Are you for real?"

"Dusti, Eric asked me about a week ago. What was I supposed to do? Call him up and tell him I can't go with him because my ex asked me to go with him instead?"

"Well no I guess not." I paused and then grinned "So Eric huh. You've been seeing each other quite a bit lately haven't you?"

She blushed a little with a shy smile "Yeah. I think he's going to ask me to be his girlfriend."

"If he does are you going to say yes?"

"Maaaaaaaaaybe." She smiled bigger

We both let out a big girly squeal and jumped like before. The two of us then collapsed to the floor in a bout of excited laughter. We knew we should have kept it down for my sister's sake, but we couldn't help it. This was just an exciting day.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14  
by Punk

(Chris's POV)

"So, Dunn has a daughter called Amanda. I don't fucking care." Cole slammed his door in my face and I caught the pot fumes that had slipped out of the room.

"I take it Aila said no." I said as I went into Scarlett and Jacey's room.

"He's a mess. I'm fucking calling Aila and I don't know." Jacey sat down on the bed, her pregnancy hormones were acting up. "I hate seeing him like this, ya know? Corey is on fucking cloud nine with Mark, he is literally the only person in this house who's seriously happy right now."

"Well.." I paused for a moment. "Corey kinda deserves it, ya know? After what he's been through." I thought back to when Corey was taking drugs and sighed deeply. "Even though he's never the fuck around anymore."

"I've lived here over a month and I've seen Corey literally 6 times." Scarlett piped up.

"He's gotten a lot more distant from us. Jeremey too. I mean he's still around but he's with his band or Hanna all the time now. Chris, you're beginning to get distant too. You're usually studying or something." Jacey hung her head. "And next year you'll all be gone. Jeremey will be on tour, Cole will be on tour, you'll be in school, Corey and Mark will have their studio, Scarlett you probably will be modeling. It will just be me and my baby."

I nodded, I didn't really ever think about it but it was true. "Well, you'd still have Jack and Jordan around, and Josh and Ava will still be here, maybe not living here, but around."

"Big deal! It still leaves me here without any friends, just my cousins and my baby niece and nephew and my baby." Jacey sighed looking away.

I looked at Scarlett. "Don't look at me, my family kicked me out. I can't wait to get out of here. But really I think we have a bigger problem on our hands." She nodded toward the soft sobbing coming from Cole's room.

"He's really depressed. The great Cole Vincent Novak is seriously depressed." I muttered to myself.

"He'll do anything to have her back. But she won't take him. What a bitch." Jacey spat and slammed her fist against the wall.

"Hey what's going on in here?" It was Corey, surprisingly. "Jacey, Scarlett? You two ok? Chris?"

"We're fine, your brother is the one who's a mess." Scarlett replied softly.

Corey turned and looked at me but I shook my head. "What's the matter with Jey?" He looked at us, his face grim.

"Jeremey's fine. It's Cole." Jacey said looking at Corey. His eyes grew wide and he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room.

"What's the matter with Cole?" His blue eyes were piercing and scared. "What happen? Is he hurt, did-did something happen to Aila?"

"It's Aila's fault, Cor. They broke up, you knew that, and she won't take him back. I don't think she'll even talk to him. He's smoking pot, he's depressed, Corey I think...I think he's starting to cut."

Corey's eyes grew wider if it was possible. He sighed deeply and rubbed his arms. "How come I didn't feel this?"

"I didn't either, not as first. We're so distant now, it's broken our bond."  
"You've always been the most empathic, the most telepathic, if you didn't feel this or know this, I guess it's really has been broken. I mean look, we're not even dressed really alike. And doesn't our nail polish usually chip the same way, look."

I looked down, Corey was right. He was in black slim fit pants and a green button up t-shirt, he looked kinda like Billy Joe Armstrong. I was rocking camouflage pants and a deep purple tank top. Cole had been wearing a black t-shirt and gray cargos. He was right about the nail polish too, his were freshly done, mine were chipped to almost gone.

"This is so wrong." He shook his head.

It was first time I noticed his dark curls, cut in a skater style, like uncle Bam's. Mine was straight and cut short around my ears and neck while my bangs were long and hung 'emoishly' over my left eye. Cole's was always spiked excepted for the bangs which hung across his face.

I nodded. "It's wrong. We have to do something." I looked at Corey, trying to communicate with him as we would have done a month, although it felt like years, ago. "Do you know what I'm thinking?" I would have never had to ask before. We spoke softly.

"It's faint. Your voice has never been that faint in my head before. But, if you're trying to tell me that we should go see Aila, I can hear you."

"But can you hear my worries, Corin?"

"Cobin, it's a little stronger, but we need Covin to come back to us. This coven cannot be without him. We're already losing our ties to one another."

"But what if Covin is dead?" Cole came to meet us then. He was dark eyed and deathly pale. "Brothers. I know because of the broken bond we must speak out loud, but please, don't go to Aila. It's her choice, as broken as my heart is by it."

"Covin-"

"Stop, I'll hear no more."

"You broke the bond Covin! You betrayed us, our coven!" Corey's voice was strong despite its silence, and I soon realized we had entered our minds again, briefly.

"Brothers! We are not enemies, we are blood! Let us not fight one another, let us instead work to hold our bond as strong as it is at this moment."

"The bond can never be this strong again. Covin is dying, and Cole may soon follow. For my heart is dead, what is a body to me?" Cole disappeared into his room and I looked at Corey. I felt the bond weakened again.

"Corey, we've gotta go see Aila."

"Yeah, let's get the fuck out of here." He turned and I followed after him.

(Corey's POV)

"Chris, we'll take my truck." I called to my brother as we got outside.

"Man, this having to speak our minds out loud so often is tiring." Chris said as we got into my truck.

"I couldn't agree more."

Cole, Chris and I have known for over a decade that we aren't normal triplets by any means. We are connected stronger then we let anyone think. That's what the whole coven thing is about. Just a play on our pre-teen vampire days, it's not like we make blood sacrifices to some unpronounceable deity or turn into bats at night. It's just what we call ourselves, especially when we talk to each other only through our minds. The vamp times are where the whacked names came from too. Secret things after all include many secrets, so the names are just a part of that.

"Do you think Cole is serious about, ya know, dying?"

I sighed. "Cole never lies. And he's as much of a dramatist as mom."

"Shit." Chris sighed and laid his head back against the seat. "So, how's Mark?"

"Chris...Mark and I are thinking about something." I sighed and Chris looked at me. "We're thinking about moving in together and maybe getting married really soon. He'll be 19 in a few weeks, by then I'll be 18 and then Kat is gonna sign her studios over to us. We've got this really nice apartment and we have to be in by the end of October."

Chris sighed and nodded. "Go for it. I mean, if it makes you happy. You deserve it."

I nodded. "We're thinking about adoption already too. Mark has this cousin in Mexico who just got pregnant and she doesn't really want the baby."

"Have a happy life." Chris said. I could tell that he didn't mean to sound bitter but it came out that way.

"Some way, some how we're gonna fix this. If I have to kill someone, I will."

Chris laughed a little. "Now with all your plans? Nah I'll kill um, I aint got so much to lose."

I started to laugh and then stopped. "Do you think that maybe Aila still loves Cole, she just wants to date around?"

"Or maybe she's just not ready for marriage."

"Cole did rush things with her. But I can't stop thinking about how much he really loves her."

"And how much she seems not to."

We sighed at the same time. I glanced briefly at Chris as we turned into the driveway. "Alright, make me promise not to do anything I will regret."  
Chris smirked. "Corey do you promise not to do anything you'll regret?"

"I promise." We got out and went up to the door. Dusti opened it and let us in.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

By Pippie

(Jack's POV)

The song ended and I stopped recording before setting my camera down.

"That was great." I said with a smile

"Says the camera man." Jeremey rolled his eyes "I messed up on that last fill and I almost dropped my drumstick."

"_Dropped_? Or nearly threw it to where it would stab my eye out?"

I laughed quietly to myself over the guitarist's comment. I have been filming Jeremey's band since school started but I still fail to learn the other member's names. They asked me to film some amateur music videos for them. When I'm done filming I'm going to do all kinds of cool editing so they will look awesome. We already filmed some today and we're going to film again tomorrow but Jeremey called us all to come back over a little while ago because he needed to get his mind off of the relationship drama between Cole and Aila. Normally I'd stay out of other people's relationship stuff, and I have been so far, but now my cousins came over to my house to talk to Aila about what she's doing to Cole or whatever. So when Jeremey called me back over I was more than glad to get away from all of that bullshit.

"Ok I guess that's good for now. Let's go in the house." Said Jeremey

We all left the garage and went inside. Aunt Jade walked past me but then she stopped me by putting a hand on my arm and pulled me closer to her. She looked at me up and down with a grin.

"Jack you're looking real good. You been working out?"

"Well no." I blushed slightly "But I've been on a diet."

"You've really lost weight. Must be some diet. You should give your uncle Novak some diet tips." She laughed

"Uh yeah…" I felt a little nervous

"But really, you look real good. You seem to have lost weight pretty fast."

"Well I've been real strict with my diet and I exorcise a little bit twice a day."

That was such a lie. I hate having to lie about how I've lost weight.

"Well keep it up." She grinned and walked away

I sighed and walked into the kitchen. I don't know why I went there other than it smelled so good. Jacey was cooking again. My mouth watered a little as I smelled what she was cooking. She looked at me and grinned before pulling the food out of the oven.

"Oh hey Jack. Just the guy I wanted to see."

"Me?"

"Yeah I want you to test something that I made."

"Uh… ok."

She brought down a small plate from the cupboard and got a fork and sat them on the table. She then placed a small piece of some Italian dish on the plate and I stared at it. It looked so good, and I have to admit that I was a little hungry, but I didn't want to eat it. I didn't know how to tell her nicely that I didn't want to eat it because I would be forced to throw it up afterwards. This really sucks because I know what I do to myself is wrong but I still have some weight to lose.

I sat down and picked up the fork while staring at the food. Jacey looked at me and frowned a little.

"Something wrong?"

"Uh, no, everything's fine. I'm just, uh, waiting for it to cool down."

"It's plenty cool enough just try it already."

I put some of the food on my fork and tried not to sigh before bringing it to my mouth. It was hard not to appear as though eating one forkful of food was pure torture to me, just so she wouldn't question anything. I took the bite and instantly I wanted more. It actually had been a while since I last ate, and what Jacey made was so good I almost couldn't help myself. I ate it all and even asked for some more. Jacey grinned and served me a bigger piece.

As I ate I started to feel guilty. This was so good that I didn't want to throw it up. I also didn't want Jacey to find out, which she probably would. I finished eating just as quickly as I had started and then I headed upstairs saying that I needed to get my backpack from Jeremey's room. Again, I hate lying about this.

I went straight into the bathroom and closed the door. Looking in the mirror at myself, I held my stomach. Even though I've lost most of the weight I had gained over the summer I still feel like crying every time I look at myself in the mirror. I quickly turned away from the mirror and went over to the toilet to throw up. I hate myself every time I do this but I still do it. It's so hard to get myself to stop.

Immediately after I was done I left the bathroom, nearly running into Jeremey. I rushed past him down the stairs.

"Yo! What's the matter Jack? Where are you going?"

"I have to go. I'll be back tomorrow after school!"

"Tomorrow's Saturday!" He started to follow me "You alright?"

I didn't even look at him "I'm fine. I just remembered something I have to do at home. I'll just leave my camera here ok?"

"Alright… see you tomorrow!"

I didn't answer, I just rushed out the door. As I walked all the way home I began crying quietly to myself. I repeated over and over in my mind how much I hated myself for what I've done. They're going to find out I just know it. Even worse, they'll find out and tell my dads about it.

As soon as I got home I went up to my room and curled up on my bed, crying silently to myself. Pretty soon my dad, Bam, came in and placed a hand on my side.

"Hey, um, dinner is almost ready if you want to come down."

"No thanks I'm not hungry."

He nodded and quietly left. I knew that he was feeling bad for me even though he didn't know why I had come home so upset. It also seemed like he wanted to tell me something other than dinner was ready but he didn't know how to say what he really wanted to say. I told him I wasn't hungry but the truth is, I just didn't want to have to throw up again. I'm really sick of all this but I can't bring myself to stop no matter how hard I try. It scares me.

(Jordan's POV)

I walked into the room shortly after Bam left. There I saw Jack all curled up in his bed with tears slowly rolling down his face. My heart sank right as I saw him. I didn't even have to ask him what was wrong because I just knew. I went over to the bed and sat down by him. He looked up at me and wiped tears on the back of his hand.

"Jack…"

He shook his head "Jordan please I don't need you to lecture me about this. I hate myself enough already."

I sighed. It hurt me so much to see him like this. I leaned forward and put an arm around him, placing my head on his side.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself?"

"I don't know…" He sniffed "It's so hard not to…"

"I don't understand."

"I don't either. All I know is it's helped me to get thin again."

"You know there are better ways to lose weight."

"I know! I'm so stupid…" He began to cry some more

I shook my head "No Jack you aren't."

He glared at me "Jordan please."

I sat up and looked away from him. He was hurting more than usual over this. Actually he was more than hurting, he was scared.

"Aunt Jade called shortly before you got home."

Jack sat up slowly and looked at me "Wh-what did she have to say?"

"I don't know. She talked to dad."

"Please tell me she talked to Jimmy and not Bam."

"Jack…" I sighed "She knows about you. After growing up with dad she's learned the signs of eating disorders and is able to spot them easily. She, Jacey and Jeremey were talking about you after you ran out of their house…"

He shoved me away from him and I almost fell off the bed. He started to get up but he was shaking so badly. I knew he couldn't stand to hear any more of what I had to say to him. His face had grown pale, his eyes were large and he was trembling uncontrollably.

"Jack?"

"Shut up! Just get the hell out of here now!"

"But…"

"_Now_!"

I slowly stood up, still looking at him, and started to move over toward the door. I placed a hand on the doorknob, watching him sit there shaking. I wanted to say something before I left but I didn't want to get yelled at again. Right as I opened the door to leave, Bam was there about to come in. he signed to me saying to go downstairs so he could talk to Jack. Even though he told me to leave I found myself unable to do so. I stood there watching as Bam calmed Jack down enough to talk to him. Jimmy came up behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. Without saying anything, he ushered me downstairs so Jack and Bam could talk in private. At the bottom of the stairs he pulled me into a hug and reassured me the best that he could that Jack was going to be alright.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16  
by Punk  
(Jeremey's POV)

"Hey Scarlett, do you think I look alright in this?"

I showed my cousin the black dress pants and deep purple button up I would be wearing over a black tank top with my adios. I had spiked my hair and added black eyeliner. I was in the process of painting my nails black.

Scarlett giggled. "Jey, you look fine. Don't worry so much; Hanna really likes you. You could probably show up in jeans and a t-shirt and she wouldn't mind. Now, how does this dress look on me?"

She was wearing a black spaghetti strap dress that laced up at her torso. Her hair was down, blonde locks flowing limp past her shoulders. Her makeup was purple eye shadow and black eyeliner that coordinated with the black dress and purple fishnet gloves and tights. She was also wearing a pushup bra and she had laced her dress tightly. I had to turn away blushing. She started laughing.

"Good thing we're cousins, huh?"

I nodded. "Yeah. So, who's everyone going with?" We sat down on my bed.

"Well you and Hanna, Dusti and Andy, Corey and Mark, Aila is going with some guy from school, I don't know if Cole is going. And from what I heard Jacey is going with Alex Harris from your band."

"What about you and Chris?" I looked at her and she smirked. "No way. You're not serious."

She laughed. "His actual date is Kerry Glomb and I'm going with Tony."

"Lane? From my band?" She nodded. "Okay, cool."

"So I'm gonna go over about seven. Tony is gonna pick you up then?"

"Tony and Alex will be here around seven to pick up me and Jacey. Corey Chris and maybe Cole are gonna leave about then too."

"Alright." I got up and left the room. I headed down to Cole's room and knocked on the door.

Chris opened it. "Jey, what do you want?"

"What are you guys doing?" I could smell the pot and it made me uneasy. My brothers rarely smoked.

"We're giving our blood to the mother goddess." Chris tried to look serious but then he started laughing. "Nah, we're just having an early party." He stuck his head back into the room. "Hey guys do we let Jey in?"

"Hell yeah. Let him in. I want to show him this sick new tat I got!" It was Corey and he was sounding close to drunk. Chris opened the door and let me in quickly before closing it again and locking it.

Corey sat in Mark's lap on the floor while Cole lay on his stomach on his bed. Chris took a seat lounged out on the floor. Baggies and beer bottles were sprawled on the floor along with ash trays and tattoo supplies. Cole took a drag and looked at me.

"Sit down and take a drag." He blew his smoke out in a perfect ring.

"Uh, no thanks." I took a beer and opened it, drinking it slowly.

"Hey Jey, Mark and I are doin tats want one?" Corey showed me the fresh ink on his forearm.

"Hey hey hey. We gotta do Cole's sleeve and this is gonna take a while so tell me now." Mark spoke up.

"Um, I think I'll pass. Thanks for the beer though." I got up and left the room.

"Pussy!" Corey yelled after me and I heard the room erupt in laughter. Sometimes my brothers are just to off, too rebellious, too wrong for me.

(Scarlett's POV)

"Do you think he cares that I'm knocked up?"

Jacey was standing in front of the mirror modeling in her dress and boots. I had curled her hair for her, it hung to her shoulders in soft black locks and around her face, framing her deep brown eyes. She was wearing scarlet eye shadow and black eyeliner along with black nail polish. Her dress was black, of course, with scarlet sleeves and fishnet tights and black boots. She looked stunning for a pregnant teenager.

"I'm sure he doesn't. If he did care, why would he ask you out?" I was touching up my nail polish as Jacey looked in the mirror. "Stop being so nervous."

"I can't help it. I really want things to work with Alex but I'm also still holding out for Shawn." She sighed and sat down next to me. "What if I fall in love with Alex and then Shawn wants me back?"

"Shawn is a complete asshole, whore and a fuck up. You and your baby deserve so much better. By the way, how did your doctor's appointment go?" I looked at my cousin.

"It's a boy...and a girl. I'm having twins." Jacey said gravely.

"Oh. Well, that explains the belly...and everything else. You've got to tell everyone."

She sighed. "I will. I'll tell Dusti as soon as I see her. Aila knows but I don't know if Jeremey told Hanna yet. Andy probably doesn't know and I'm not sure about Jack and Jordan."

"Well that, and about the having twins part. Did you tell A. Jay yet?"

"Yeah. She just kinda hugged me. I told my brothers too. Mostly same reaction, except more excited. Dad just stared blankly at me. I really have to talk to someone other then my sibs and you about this."

"Why don't you go over and talk to Uncle Bam and Uncle Jimmy."

She sighed. "I would but they have Jack to worry about. I'll just try to talk to my Mom. I guess."

I nodded. "Well, Tony and Alex will be here any second. We better go." I got up and helped her up.

We went downstairs and A. Jay took a few pictures, just for giggles. She's always been cool to me. I wish she was mom, sometimes. I guess now she sorta is. My real mom used to be the coolest person, but having me changed all that I guess.

Cole, Chris, Corey and Mark left not long after we came downstairs. I caught a glimpse of the new tattoo that ran down Cole's arm. It was vines running down the entire length of this arm that led to a small heartagram at the inside of his wrist. At the top of his shoulder there was a bigger, thicker heartagram with Aila's name in the center of it. Jeremey left just as Tony and Alex arrived. Tony is really cool. He's got a great sense of humor and he's always telling jokes. But he can also be serious. I like that in him. Alex is a lot like Jacey. I can see why they hooked up. They both have bubbly, yet bitchy, personalities.

Uncle Nov grabbed Alex by the shirt and made him promise to take care of Jacey. Then he kissed her and I could have cried because I think it was the first time he's been so loving toward her since she told him she was gonna have a baby, well two babies now. Jacey actually did start crying a little bit and then hugged both parents. I got hugged too and then I almost cried. I miss that so much. I made up my mind then and there just we left that I was gonna call my dad when I finally get home tonight.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

By Pippie

(Hanna's POV)

Jeremey and I walked into the dance together and people started to come up to us. It was like we were a celebrity couple. Well technically, in a way I guess, we kind of are. We looked around for our friends and right away we spotted Andy. He was standing by the far wall talking to some girl. Jeremey and I had never seen this girl before so we assumed that Andy or someone else possibly had invited her along. From the way it looked, Andy and this mystery girl seemed to be having a lot of fun over against their wall, laughing and talking and smiling an awful lot at each other. I clenched my fists at my sides and headed over there ready to kick Andy's ass. I couldn't believe what I saw. I couldn't believe that Andy would be the type to cheat, let alone on Dusti. Not only cheat, but do it so openly in front of the whole school. And where the hell was Dusti and why wasn't she slapping the hell out of this skank? I felt Jeremey grab my arm and it calmed me down some. When we got over to Andy and this girl, Andy smiled at us.

"Oh hey! Guys I'd like to introduce you to my sister, Amanda. Amanda, this is Jeremey Novak and Hanna Valo-Vuori two very good friends of mine."

His _sister_? Oh man that made me feel foolish times 10. I just grinned and said it was nice to meet her. Jeremey kind of laughed at me because everyone in the Novak household had heard about Andy's sister so I should have known not to jump to conclusions like I did. I can't believe I forgot about Andy having a sister. I guess I was just too busy with school and working on almost everyone's homecoming outfits that I didn't pay attention to all the news that had been flying around at the house.

Dusti walked up and hooked her arm in Andy's arm and she looked amazing. She said how glad she was that she didn't win homecoming queen and then she laughed. We talked about the halftime ceremony and how everyone in the stands, even on the visiting side, cheered real loud once Dusti's parents were mentioned as they escorted her down the field. The second loudest cheer came before that when Novak and Jade walked Jacey down the field. No one ever made mention of Jacey's little baby bump that she has forming, which I'm sure Jacey's more than glad for.

Pretty soon the rest of our little gang had gathered around. Even Jack and Jordan were there with dates. Well it was all of us together except for Cole and Aila. Aila was off slow dancing with her date, Eric, and she looked like she was having the time of her life. As for Cole, no one really knew where he was. We just hoped that he wasn't off getting drunk or scoring some drugs or something. This very possibly was the case for him these days. And he used to be the most straight-laced one of our group. It seemed like the happier Aila was with her new guy, the worse Cole got.

I'm glad for Aila that she is dating other guys and getting the experience that she wanted and needed. But then there's Cole. Yeah I feel bad that he's all depressed like he is but it's like, come on Cole. We know you love her, but is she really the greatest girl in the world to make you feel like this just because she broke up with you? Also how do you _know _she's the one for you if you refuse to let yourself experience any one else? It's not like the 1800's where you could have one date with a person and then get married to them. It doesn't work that way any more. As bad as this sounds I'm glad that Aila broke up with him when she did. They needed time apart. And I wish he'd get off his ass, stop feeling sorry for himself and go on a date with some one. A date for fuck's sake. That shouldn't be much to ask of him. He wouldn't even have to be into the girl. Forget about Aila for one minute and live his life. It's not healthy to keep pining away for her, especially since she's not going to get back with him any time soon.

We all started to watch Aila and Eric slow dance together and I realized she was truly happy for the first time since the break up. I'm so happy for her right now.

(Aila's POV)

I knew everyone of my friends was watching me dance with Eric but I didn't care. I feel so… natural with Eric. We click so well. And he's so cute I can't help but smile and get all giggly whenever he looks at me. Sure I was like that with Cole at first, but not all the time like I am with Eric. To tell the truth I never was really sure if I loved Cole completely. Sometimes I just felt like I was dating a friend, like I might as well have been dating Andy. True Cole and I started out as friends but the friend factor never really went away for me. And I never told anyone about that.

With Cole I felt like I got pushed too much and too quickly, and I often did things I wasn't ready to do because he loved me so much. I did certain things because I didn't want him to be disappointed or get hurt or whatever. But with Eric I feel like I'm able to relax and be myself more and do things when I'm ready to do them. I never once felt like I could do that with Cole.

With Cole I sort of felt trapped. He claimed me as his own a long time ago and still refuses to let go. It's almost pathetic that he won't allow himself to see any other girl in his life except for me. That really scares me sometimes. I almost didn't want to come to America for school this year because of Cole being so possessive. With Eric; he allows me to be free. I'm my own woman. I never once had that in my entire life. Not from my dads, and especially not from Cole. I don't think Cole even stopped to think about just how possessive he is. And I have to admit, he's a tad bit clingy. Sometimes I felt like I couldn't breathe around him. He's the main reason why I started smoking because I'd get so stressed out after visiting him. I wish he could see that I'm not the only girl out there for him and that he doesn't need to hold on so tightly to me.

Eric and I continued to slow dance for a second even once the song ended and a faster one came on. He gave me a kiss and then whispered in my ear.

"I have something for you."

I looked into his eyes and smiled "Like what?"

"You'll see."

He waited until after the dance was over to let me know what this something was. He walked me out to his car and opened the door for me. Once we were both seated in his car he opened the glove box and pulled out a long velvet jewelry box. As he handed the box to me he smiled and looked into my eyes.

"I got this for you because I wanted to know if you'll be my girlfriend."

I trembled a little as I looked from him to the box. I felt myself begin to blush as I smiled back at him and answered his question.

"Yes of course." I said before giving him a kiss

"Open the box." He grinned

Inside the box was the prettiest necklace. It had a platinum chain and a large pink diamond that was shaped like a heart. I had no idea he would even be able to afford something this nice. I threw my arms around his neck and couldn't help but let out a girly squeal.

"I love it so much!"

"Here," He said while pulling away from me "Let me help you put it on."

He took the necklace out of the box and draped it around my neck.

"It looks so perfect for you, babe." He kissed me on the neck

"Thank you so much. I can't wait to show my sister what my boyfriend got me." I smiled so big when I said the word "boyfriend"

We kissed each other deeply. We spent a while sitting in his car in the parking lot making out before he drove me back to Bam and Jimmy's house. When I got there it was kind of late and everyone was already asleep. I went straight up to mine and Dusti's room and lied in the bed staring up at the ceiling. I was too excited to even change out of my clothes let alone try to sleep. For once in a real long time I was truly happy.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18  
by Punk

(Cole's POV)

"Oh Aila!"

I moaned while kissing the neck of the beauty under me. I ran my hands down her pale skin, bracing my fingers at her hip. I buried my face against her neck and with my other hand I ran it through her hair. My fingers wrapped around the blonde...

"You can call me anything you want." The girl, who clearly was not Aila, moaned.

I pulled back and looked at her. Blonde curled locks, brown eyes. These features were far different from my dark haired green eyed Finnish goddess.

"Cole, what's the matter?" She eased up from under me as I pulled back.

"I-I can't." I ran my hand through my dark hair, cringing at how long and greasy I had allowed it to become.

I reached for my shirt and almost vomited at the smell I had not noticed mere minutes before. This is what I've become. I can't do this anymore.

"Cole, baby are you okay?"

I looked over at the blonde waiting in my bed. She was beautiful; a punky chick I had met at the dance. Her brown eyes were smeared with blood red eye shadow and black eyeliner. She was clothed in only a green and black bra and a black thong. More then willing to spread her legs for me. What the fuck was I waiting for?

"Look, if you don't want too, I can go." She said

_Just fuck her, Cole. You can pretend she's Aila. Get your rocks off, buddy. _

That's what my pot infected brain was seriously telling me. I needed to stop smoking that fucking shit.

"Just go." I said hoarsely.

She sighed softly before getting up and putting her clothes on. "I had fun tonight, you have my number if you ever want to hook up." She left quickly and I sank back down on the bed. I waited out my high in silence.

As soon as I could think within the boundaries of my own mind I got up and grabbed a bunch of my clothes. I then threw in the laundry basket and put it out for Mom. I hadn't done that in a while. I changed into clean boxers and a clean black tank top, and then I rummaged around for a clean pair of pants. I found an old pair of blue jeans that were ripped, faded and had heartagrams drawn all over them. I pulled them on along with my sneakers and went through my room for the cigarettes and pot had stashed around. I got rid of all it and then went downstairs. I then took a 5 minute shower, long enough to get the grease out of my hair. Taking a pair of scissors, I shortened it as soon as I was out of the shower. I quickly gelled it to a spike and went back upstairs to put on my eyeliner and to catch my breath while I touched up my nail polish. When it was finally dry I grabbed my much neglected board.

It was still dark out when I went to my ramp. I had finished it but never tried it out. I turned on the outside lights and went up the ramp.

"I hope I remember how to do this." I dropped in. "It's like flying, Cole. It's like flying." I whispered to myself as I began to skate.

Three hours and about 20 falls later I was back to old self, physically speaking in terms of skating. My mind was still off. I took off my shirt and went inside for some water and a towel. I grabbed an early breakfast and went back out. I was determined to skate my way back to semi normal.

"Cole?"

I looked up a while later to see Chris and Corey standing there. They were wide eyed and surprised.

"How long have you been out here?"

"What time is it?" I asked stopping and looking at them.

"About 8." Corey answered.

"Ehh, 8 hours." I said as I started skating again.

Chris looked at Corey and Corey looked back at him. "Do you think?" Chris started.

"I think." Corey looked back at me.

I landed a trick and stopped right in front of my brothers. "I'm back."

(Jacey's POV)

POP!

Cole, Chris and Corey laughed, holding out their glasses as Jeremey poured the fizzing wine into their glasses. My brothers clanked their glasses and drank.

"Boys, this is to the fucked old year and into the fucking new year!" Cole proclaimed as Corey leaned over and kissed Mark.

"To me gaining a degree in journalism in the years to come!" Chris yelled and the boys took another drink.

The degree was coming along good for Chris. And he also had an on and off relationship with Kerry Glomb.

"To me and Mark living a long and happy life together and to the birth of our baby." Corey put in, giving Mark another kiss before they took yet another drink.

He and Mark had gotten married, moved out, gotten Kat's tattoo chain and their baby was due in April.

"Ehh. To my band, to my relationship with Hanna, to life." That was Jeremey's toast and the wine was gone.

I raised my glass of apple juice. "To my babies."

"To Brandan and Jada!" Scarlett said with a grin. She was trying to make me feel better by not drinking either.

"To our niece and nephew." Josh said coming downstairs to us with Amy.

They had just put Aiden and Jamie to bed and they were going out with our parents to party. It wasn't actually midnight. We were just fooling around.

"Don't drink too much guys." Amy said while opening another bottle of wine for the boys. "We'll all be back by 6. And remember, if you're gonna have a party here, no one drinks and drives. Jacey, Scarlett, take their keys. And Cole, if Aila brings her boyfriend, don't beat him up."

Cole smirked. He had gotten over Aila in the last couple of months, or so it seemed. He had a dated a few girls but it never really lasted. I know he still loves her.

"Alright, try not to wake up Aiden and Jamie, and check on them."

"Amy, don't worry so much! Everything is gonna be okay. It's just the CKY kids, and the dudes from Jeremey's band. No one you haven't met twenty thousand times before." Scarlett told Amy. "And I promised Jacey I wouldn't drink. Now go have a helluva time with Josh." She hugged her and laughed.

"Alright alright." Amy grinned and took Josh's hand.

They said goodbye to us and left. Mom and Dad came down and said goodbye to each off us and basically said the same things Amy had.

Finally the adults were gone and everyone started arriving to party with us. We put on a bunch of music but kept it kinda low so not to wake up Aiden and Jamie. I guess Kerri and Chris were on tonight because they were all over each other. Corey and Mark disappeared for upstairs for a while, and it doesn't take a genius to know why. Dusti and Andy were hanging out with everyone, doing just about everything there was to do. Jeremey and Hanna were over in a corner talking, laughing, dancing and drinking. Scarlett was flirting and dancing with Jeremey's band members.

Scarlett flirted with the band guys except for Alex, who was sitting next to me. We talked and laughed quietly. I wasn't really into flirting or kissing or really anything so we just talked about random things. In the middle of a conversation about, of all things, where I was gonna have my babies, I noticed Aila and Eric had arrived. Cole, who had been doing tricks on the minnie ramp we had set up in another corner of the room, stopped and looked over.

"Uh-oh." I heard Scarlett say softly.

Cole looked around and then put on a great song. Everyone got up who wasn't already up and started dancing to it. Alex pulled me up before I said anything and we started dancing. Each in our own way. It was great. Scarlett whirled by with Tony, the same boy who had taken her to homecoming. Dusti and Andy were slow dancing. Jeremey and Hanna were moshing together. Chris and Kerry were grinding on each other. Corey and Mark were still upstairs having sex. Alex and I did our own thing, which was pretty much a combination of what everyone else was doing. I was having so much fun, and I swear I saw Cole and Aila dance together once, when were all changing partners and stuff. I didn't even notice Corey and Mark join us and that it was close to midnight until Cole got up and announced it.

"Everyone grab a partner to kiss!" He yelled half laughing.

Alex looked at me and smiled. We counted down the final seconds until the New Year and at the toll of the bell Alex pulled me into the greatest kiss of my life.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

By Pippie

(Dusti's POV)

Last night was the first night Andy and I had spent together since we started going out, as surprising as it sounds. We both wound up sleeping on the floor in the living room and at one point someone had put a blanket over us. I knew it wasn't Andy who had got the blanket and then fell back to sleep afterwards, because we were both in the same position we were in when we fell asleep. I lay part on my back and part on my side while Andy lay scrunched up next to me with his arm around me. His long hair was still in a loose ponytail that was draped around one shoulder. And he had just started to grow a beard so his whiskers had been tickling my neck all night.

I looked over at him and saw that he was still fast asleep so I closed my eyes and snuggled up closer to him. No sooner did I start to fall asleep did I feel cold water get poured all over me and Andy. We both sat up real fast, sputtering and spitting water out of our mouths. We sat there shaking and wet as everyone else who was around us stood there laughing at us.

"Rise and shine love birds! Ha ha ha!" Cole shouted and laughed

I looked at him and saw that he was holding a bucket which only made me assume he was the one who dumped the water on us. Andy wound up tackling Cole. Jack and Jordan ran up to where Andy had Cole pinned down to the floor. Jack farted in Cole's face and then Andy, Jack and Jordan took it upon themselves to drag Cole into the bathroom to give him a swirly. It was the most fun we've woken up since the time when we were little and had a big sleepover and Jacey woke up to some spiders in her sleeping bag. Sometimes I still get blamed for the spiders even though it was Jeremey and Chris who did it to her.

I barely remember the night before and apparently Andy and I were the last ones up, hence out watery wake-up. The only thing I kind of remember right now is Aila telling me that she got the bruise on her wrist after she fell and hit the door handle on Eric's car or something. I don't know. Maybe she was talking about something or someone else. Right now it's hard to keep certain images and conversations in my head straight.

Andy and Cole wound up getting into a small wrestling match in the hallway, after Cole managed to escape the toilet. We decided, after watching the playful match for a minute, to pull them apart and then we all went out for breakfast. After breakfast Andy brought me home and we went up to my bedroom for a while. As much time alone Andy and I spend together people don't believe me when I say we have never slept together. Well my dads believe me and I think Aunt Jade does, but everyone else doesn't. We really haven't slept together yet because we're not in a big hurry for it and we want it to be special once we finally do.

We hung out in my room, with me on my bed and Andy lying on the floor looking up at me. Sure we made out for a little bit but most of the time we spent in my room we were talking. Andy sat up part way through our conversation and he looked me in the eyes.

"Hey I was thinking about something." He said

"Did it hurt?"

He laughed "Not too much. But anyway, I was thinking that in the fall we're going to college together, and separate dorms probably would be expensive."

I interrupted him "Andy we both have the money for college…"

"I know that! I'm not done yet. What I wanted to say is; we're going to be on the same campus pretty much the whole time, and we'd be going there in the same car everyday. Wouldn't it make sense if we lived in the same place together?"

I stared at him for a second and he got this cute little grin on his face.

"Are you asking me to move in with you?"

"I suppose I am."

I couldn't answer so I just smiled at him.

(Andy's POV)

It felt like forever when she didn't answer me right away. She caused me to feel nervous all of the sudden even though I knew what she was going to say. But she was taking her good sweet time in answering me. She sat up and wrapped her arms around my neck and shoulders.

"Of course I'll move in with you!"

"Great!" I kissed her and pulled back some "I already have some apartments lined up. We can look at them this weekend if you want."

"Andy how long have you been thinking about this?"

"Long enough. I just finally got around to asking you."

She looked like she was going to hit me playfully, which she probably was, but then she didn't. I pulled her into a kiss and then she pulled me down on top of her on the bed. We always remind ourselves not to get too carried away but we haven't really discussed about when we will actually go all the way other than we want it to be special. Maybe once we are in college and settled into our apartment things will begin to change.

She is not my first girlfriend and I am not her first boyfriend but we have shared certain firsts with each other. We even know for sure that we are going to be each other's "first". I even thought about her being my "only" but who knows how things will go between us?

Dusti and I pulled apart and sat up once one of her dads knocked on the door. We were told that we would have to come downstairs to watch Kayla for a little bit. Dusti rolled her eyes and brushed her hair back.

"Oh hey didn't I tell you? Amanda and Scarlett decided to rent an apartment and be roommates."

"Your sister and my cousin are gonna live together? I didn't even know they started hanging out or anything."

"Apparently they did. Amanda told me about the apartment thing just the other day. She said she was planning on renting a place nearby anyway and needed someone to split rent with, and she was talking to Scarlett about it and Scarlett said she was planning on moving out of your aunt and uncle's house soon. So… yeah."

"Oh wow. Wait, since when do you call Jade and Novak "your aunt and uncle"?"

I shrugged my shoulders. I really didn't notice that I said it that way to be honest. She and I got up and headed downstairs just as Bam and Jimmy were leaving. After they walked out the door I turned to Dusti.

"Is it just me or does it look like Bam has, uh, well gotten a little bit more junk in the trunk recently?" Dusti slapped me on the arm "What?"

"Whatever you do, don't mention that around him." She said, trying not to laugh

We both laughed a little before I realized that we were standing under some leftover mistletoe from Christmas. As we kissed I knew that this was truly going to be a wonderful year for the two of us.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20  
by Punk

(Chris's POV)  
"Man, when are you gonna come out and skate with us?" Cole was sitting on my bed looking at some magazine.

Corey was seated on the floor, talking to his husband on his cell phone. I was finishing my homework so we could go skating.

"In a second, I'm almost done." I finished the assignment I was working on and put my shit away. "Okay, now I'm done." I turned around to them.

"Alright, I gotta go. I love you." Corey hung up his phone.

Cole closed the magazine he was looking at. I caught sight of it.

"Cole why the hell are you reading a baby magazine?" Corey looked over.

Cole Shrugged. "I figured with all the babies being born around here, Uncle Cole needs to be well informed." He got up and picked up his skateboard.

Corey snickered. "Well my baby is due in May, and Jacey is due in April. 3 more months. Can you believe it?" He got up and got his board. "Three months and Jacey will be a mom and a month later I'll be a dad. It's crazy."

I followed him with my board and Cole behind us. "I know. And I'm gonna have 5 nieces and nephews. Hey Cole you better get busy."

Cole snickered. "Me, what about you and Kerry?"

"We're not 'on' enough to have sex." We got outside and put our boards down on the ramp. "Besides, I don't want a kid. At least not any time soon. I'm perfectly happy being Uncle Chris."

"Uncle Cole! Uncle Chris! Uncle Corey!" Aiden ran up to us just as we were about to drop in.

"Hey Aiden. What's up?" Cole dropped in and skated up to him.

"Can I skate too? Please please please?"

Cole giggled and picked Aiden up. He sat him on his skateboard and started to help him.

Corey snickered. "Oh God. Cole should be the one having the kid."

I laughed and nodded as we moved over to the other ramp so we could skate. It was freezing out, though, so we didn't skate long. Cole and Aiden joined us inside after a while.

"Hey Aiden, how did you do?" Corey asked looking up from starting breakfast.

"I did good! Uncle Cole is a good teacher." Aiden sat down by Corey.

"Cole is a what?" Josh asked coming downstairs with Jamie.

"Uncle Cole taught me to skate!"

Josh laughed. "Oh great, another skater boy." Josh grinned and looked at Jamie. "Don't be getting any ideas, little girl."

"Morning everyone." Dad said coming into the room followed by Jeremey. "You might want to finish breakfast kinda fast. Jacey isn't feeling well."

"Oh shit, premature labor?" Josh asked looking over.

Dad nodded. "We're not sure, but that's what we're thinking."

(Jeremey's POV)

"Amy, Scarlett and Mom are upstairs with her. She's freaking out pretty bad." I looked at my brothers and sighed.

"Well damn it. So whose gonna go with her?" Corey looked around.

Josh sighed. "Well Mom, Amy and Scarlett are definitely going. So I have to stay and take care of Aiden and Jamie."

"I have an essay to write and this, ya know, it could just be nothing." Chris hung his head.

"I'll go." Cole said.

I nodded. "I'm going too."

Mom came downstairs just then. "We're going to the hospital." She kissed Dad. "If it gets bad I'll call you babe." She went outside to the car and I followed her.

"Mom, is it really premature labor?" I asked getting in with her.

Mom shook her head. "I don't know. I've gone into labor 4 times and honestly I really don't know."

Amy and Scarlett came out just then with Jacey between them. Cole followed carrying her bag. I looked back as they helped Jacey in the car. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were tear stained. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and leaned forward. Amy and Scarlett sat on either side of her and rubbed her back tenderly as Cole crawled into the back.

"Jacey, you need anything?" I asked softly looking at my little sister.

She shook her head and I frowned as Mom drove us to the hospital. Hours passed and Cole and I paced the halls. Mom came out every once and a while to call home and give us updates but that was it. I had never been so nervous in my life and I had never seen Cole so nervous.

"Do you think everything is gonna be okay?" He finally asked me.

I sighed. "I have no idea." I really didn't.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

By Pippie

(Jordan's POV)

Let me tell you something. Jack has always been the "first twin". He was born first, he spoke actual words first, he walked first, and his name comes first alphabetically so the teachers call it before mine during roll call. But I finally did something first for a change and I have to admit that it feels great. Before Jack even had a chance to even get started with his girl, I got a girlfriend. This has been the best winter ever.

Her name is Cho and she and her family moved from Japan to America three years ago. During those three years they lived in Connecticut, Maine, New York, and Rhode Island before moving here two months ago. She's been teaching me Japanese, and I've been teaching her American sign language. And I have to tell you it has been the longest, most frustrating, hilarious experience ever. When you're mostly deaf don't try to learn a difficult language like Japanese, and when you're from Japan or any other non-English speaking country, don't try to learn sign language from a mostly deaf guy unless you have to best patients ever like Cho and I have.

We weren't together during the New Year celebration so I went over to her house to spend the day wither her and her parents. They treated me to a special traditional Japanese tea party which was so cool. We even sat on the floor in these robes in front of a small table while we had tea and sushi.

Cho's mom gave me the strangest look when I singed one of the few things that Cho had learned so far. She thought I flashed a gang sign. I tried to explain to her what I had said to Cho, but she doesn't speak much English so Cho had to translate. The funny thing is, Cho accidentally translated the wrong word and then apparently her mom thought I swore at her daughter. Cho laughed and re-translated and then her mom calmed down and apologized for what she wound up calling me. It's a good thing I haven't learned, yet, what I was called.

Right before tea was over I got a text message from Jack that nearly caused me to shit my pants. He texted, saying that Kayla had an asthma attack and was rushed to the hospital. Then he texted me back saying that he was kidding about the asthma attack, but she did split her knee open and almost needed stitches. I had to leave the room so I could call Jack and cuss him out. I was so pissed at that point because I couldn't believe Jack would have been that immature to joke about something like our little sister being rushed to the hospital.

After I calmed down I went back to finish my tea. I then thanked, the best that I could, Cho's parents for inviting me over and apologized for the disturbance that Jack caused. Cho walked with me over to the door and gave me a kiss goodbye before her dad drove me home. On the way home I thought about ways I was going to kill Jack.

(Jack's POV)

I know that was real mean of me to do, but I don't care. I just wish I could have seen Jordan's reaction. Why did I do it? Well let's see, I was bored, he was gone, I couldn't get Quinn on the phone, and then I heard Kayla fall and scream her little head off, and the idea just came to me. I guess I'm just mean spirited like Bam. Perhaps a little more mean spirited sometimes. Plus I was finally getting Jordan back for the mean prank he pulled on me a couple weeks ago.

Jordan has been spending a lot of time with his new girlfriend and, well, I'd never admit this out loud but I sort of miss him. And I suppose I'm a little jealous. Here I am still trying, and have been trying since around Thanksgiving, to get this girl, Quinn, to go out with me, and then Jordan barely does anything and wins Cho over. He says I've just been trying too hard. Whatever. I'm not trying too hard, he and I just have different techniques. And it's too late for me to give up on mine and try his. Especially since I still don't know what he did to get Cho. It's frustrating sometimes. Maybe I should ask Chris for pointers. Ha yeah right. I just want to go out with Quinn, not go to bed with her. There's plenty of time for that.

Dusti came into the room, holding Kayla's hand, and brought her over to her toys. Kayla looked so pathetic, still snuffling and pouting over her accident, that no one would be able to help melting over her cuteness. Dusti sat out a few toys and Kayla sat down to play. I went over to them and patted Kayla on the head before playing with some of her dark curls, turning them into little springs. She looked up at me and pointed to her knee that now had a Big Bird bandage on it.

"Boo boo, Jack." She pouted

"Aw I know. You got really hurt didn't you?" I kissed the top of her head

Jordan walked through the door looking angrier than Vito during one of his many freak-outs that Bam caused. I tried not to laugh at him as he came up to me. He looked like he was about to start yelling or hitting me or maybe both when Kayla got up and walked over to him and hugged his leg. She looked up and him the same way she had looked at me a minute earlier and pouted as she pointed to her knee.

"Boo boo Jordan!"

He looked at her and his whole mood changed instantly. That two-year-old girl has magic powers I swear.

"Aww you poor thing." Jordan bent down to her level and looked at her knee "Right there?"

"Yup. Boo boo on my knee."

"Aww…" He kissed her knee and gave her a hug

"Daddy gave me Big Bird." She pointed to the bandage

"Oh yeah he did. That's real cool, Kay."

Kayla walked back over to her toys and sat down to play. Dusti looked at Jordan and smiled as she both signed and spoke to him.

"So how was meeting Cho's parents?"

"Oh it went great until her mom thought I swore at Cho when I was signing."

We all laughed over that.

"Hey, um," I half signed "I'm really sorry about that prank I pulled on you."

"No you're not." He signed back and rolled his eyes

"You're right. Dad told me I had to apologize when you got home."

He rolled his eyes again and shook his head. I thought right then that I would apologize for real later. But for now, Jordan, Dusti and I sat down to play with Kayla. After a little bit Jordan and I got up and went to our room to look at some footage I shot from the day before. He even started to forgive me a little. Man it sure is going to be strange once we go back to school. Hopefully by then I'll be able to finally win Quinn over. That way I won't have to be so mean to my brother.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22  
by Punk

(Corey's POV)

"Oh God I am so nervous. Every time the phone rings, I fuckin' jump." I told Mark and sighed, shifting in my bed.

"Damn it babe. I really wish I didn't have to be in Mexico today. I wanted to be there when my niece and nephew were born." Mark told me with a sigh on the other end of the line.

"Well I guess it's better this way. I mean your cousin is having our baby, and this way I'm here for my sister." I sighed too. "Look I gotta check my messages again. I love you babe and I'll call you soon." We hung up and I checked my messages again. I sighed in relief seeing no important ones. "Man." I sat up and brushed my bangs back.

Someone knocked on the door and got up and went to open it. "Hey Jeremey, shouldn't you be at the hospital?" I asked my little brother.

"Yeah but Mom sent me out. Said I was too nervous. So how's your baby?" Jey asked coming in and sitting down.

I snickered and sat down beside him. "Still cooking, thank goodness."

Jeremey laughed. "Well, ya know those babies are gonna need stuff with they are born, and Jacey never got around to asking Glomb to get a nursery ready for her. I think we should surprise her. And we can do one for your baby too and surprise Mark."

I grinned. "Little brother you have the best ideas." I got up and called Glomb as He and I left.

We went shopping for baby clothes and all kinds of stuff. Blue and pink stuff for Jada and Brandan and yellow and green stuff for my baby.

"I think we should put their names on the wall." I told Jey, looking at some letters.

"That's a good idea. But I'm wondering if Jacey isn't gonna just change her mind about the names. She's pretty in love with one of my band mates. He actually came to the hospital to be with her. I don't think she gonna give them Shawn's last name at the very least."

"Hmm, why don't we call and ask?" I took out my phone and handed it to Jeremey.

He called Mom and talked for a few minutes while I picked up some more stuff.

"Okay, Mom says that Jacey is gonna keep the first names the same, Brandan and Jada but Brandan's middle name is gonna be Patrick Philip and their last name is gonna be Novak."

"Patrick?"

"Dad's mom's name is Pat and grandpa's brother's name is Patrick."

"Oh yeah. Man she's really into the family names."

Jeremey nodded. "Yeah, I know."

We picked up some more stuff and went back to the house to start on the room.

(Scarlett's POV)

Corey, Jeremey, and Glomb did such a good job getting the nursery ready for Jacey's babies. I gasped when I saw it after they finished. One side was painted dark blue, and letters spelling out 'Brandan' hung on the wall behind the crib which was a lighter blue. Everything on that side was some shade of blue. The carpet was a very light blue on that side and in the middle it transformed into a very light pink. The other side was painted dark pink and letters spelling out "Jada" hung on that wall behind a lighter pink crib. Everything on Jada's side was a shade of pink. The changing table was at the end of the room in the middle under the window. One side was blue and under it were stacks of blue and boys clothes, while the other side was pink and held pink and girls clothes. It was so cute.

"She gonna love this, guys." I said smiling as I looked at the two boys I could almost call brothers nowadays.

Jeremey grinned. "I really hope so. This was hard to do."

Corey nodded. "Yeah, and you should see the nursery I set up for my baby. Mark was so ecstatic when he saw it."

I grinned. "Cor you're gonna make an awesome dad. I'm just afraid to ask if anyone else is pregnant."

They all snickered together.

"Well, if Cole and Aila had stayed together they would probably have a baby pretty soon."

I shook my head. "Nah, Aila wanted to wait."

Jeremey nodded. "True. But word on the street is that Amy got pregnant again."

I laughed. "How do you know that? I don't even know that!"

Jeremey shrugged. "I just guessed."

Just then my phone went off. I checked it and sighed. "Oh boy. I gotta get back to the hospital. Those babies are coming."

Corey looked at me wide eyed. "Oh shit." Jeremey bite his lip.

"I'll call you guys later. Get a hold of Cole and Chris!" I yelled running out of the room and downstairs.

"Scarlett?"

"Can't talk now, Uncle Nov, Amy just called me." I flew past him and downstairs.

I heard his phone go off just before I got outside. By the time I got to the hospital, Jacey was just getting ready for surgery. Amy and A. Jay were trying to keep her calm.

"Hey Jacey." I said going to her side.

She looked at me and smiled sadly. "Scarlett, is Alex here?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he's worried about you. So are your brothers."

She nodded. "Well I made it to 27 weeks. They're gonna be small but they should be okay. My brothers and I all were."

A. Jay nodded. "I think it's a curse, me, Uncle Bam and Uncle Jess were all early too."

"Yeah I had Aiden and Jamie early too. Jamie wasn't too early, about 3 weeks." Amy said.

"I think it's when us women give birth to boys, we have them really early. Course you are having a boy and a girl." A. Jay kissed Jacey and laughed lightly.

Jacey started to laugh. "Aww well. I guess it's almost time for me to be a mom, huh? Damn. I wanted out of school, but not like this."

"Nobody really wants to be a teenage mother." Amy put in.

"Heh. Yeah, Amy, you got a free pass because Josh was too old." I told her laughing.

"Hey you think that's bad, I was 16 and Gee was like 28 when I got pregnant for Josh. Even Dico was 22." A. Jay added with a laugh.

"Yeah, but mom you've always liked older men. Dad is like 5 years older then you." Jacey laughed putting a hand on her stomach. She then groaned softly. "Damn these contractions suck."

"Yeah they do. But you're drugged some, I had Cole, Chris, and Corey naturally, with no drugs. And you tore me up so much I had to have drugs."

"Yeah, you can't have anymore kids cause of Jacey, can you A. Jay?" I asked looking at her.

"Yeah, sorry mom." Jacey said.

"That's okay. But yeah. It doesn't matter though, I had six kids and soon I'll have five grandkids."

"Six at the end of the year." Amy said with a smirk.

"You're pregnant?" Jacey and I said together.

Amy nodded. "Yeah but I haven't told Josh yet. Jeremey was the only one who really knew before now; he caught me with the test."

I laughed. Just then the doctor came in to take Jacey to the operating room. He asked who wanted to come with her.

"Mom?" Jacey asked looking at A. Jay.

"I think Alex should be with you, sweetie. He is their adoptive father."

Jacey and Alex had gotten engaged a few days ago, he planned to adopt the babies as soon as we got Shawn to wave his rights. We were all praying he did so without a fight.

Jacey nodded. We walked with her as they wheeled her out and Alex was brought to us.

"I'll let you guys know as soon as I can." He promised after we all hugged Jacey and she was taken in.

Alex disappeared and the boys got there. We all waited to hear the news.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

By Pippie

(Aila's POV)

The sting in my cheek alone made me cringe. I should be numb to it all by now but it hurts every time he does it and I'm not just talking about physical pain. I hate it when ever Eric does something like this to me but I don't know what to do about it. Every time I try to fight back he winds up getting angrier and then he hurts me even more. I'm too embarrassed to tell any one about it too because to them it's just not me to allow myself to just get pushed around, yelled at and physically abused by a guy. I never would have allowed it in the past, but of course in the past I never had to worry about it since Cole was never the type of guy to abuse a girl in any way shape or form. He doesn't have it in him.

I never understood girls allowing themselves to not only get themselves into abusive situations like I'm in, but to allow themselves to remain in those situations. In fact, before I would have been down right pissed at a girl in this situation for not standing up for herself. But now I know differently. There's no standing up for yourself and there's no way to escape it once you're in it. I learned this the hard way. I had no idea that Eric was going to be like this when we started going out. If I had known there's no way I would have had anything to do with him. But he had me fooled. He had me fucking fooled from day one. He had every one fooled since no one else even has a clue that he's like this. I'm just glad that we've been together during the time of year where I would be wearing long sleeves and pants. That way I can easily hide the bruises and scars he had made on my arms and legs.

"Get in the car!" Eric yelled

"No."

"What did you say?"

"I said no." I spat at him

He backhanded me like before, but this time it was even harder. I think I almost bled.

"Get in the God damn car, bitch!" He grabbed me firmly by the arm and practically threw me into the car

I hit my head on the dashboard and that hurt like a mother fucker. Eric yanked me up by my hair into sitting position and slammed the door closed. As he got into the driver's seat I held my head down and tried not to make eye contact with him. I didn't want to see the look in his eyes right then. I heard the power locks click and knew that I wouldn't be able to get out of the car. Eric had figured out how to rig it to where he would be the only one who would be able to work the locks. As Eric drove, the two of us were completely silent except for an occasional mumbled mean remark from Eric. I just kept my focus on the window and everything that we passed. Eric drove us down a dirt road that had woods on either side of it. He then pulled over to the side of the road and parked the car.

"Aila get in the back."

"Why should I?" I asked, not even taking my eyes off of the window

"Just do what I say."

I rolled my eyes and sighed as I crawled into the backseat. He crawled back and sat right next to me, pulling me close to him. Right away he began kissing me on the neck and fondling my boobs. I was so far away from being in the mood for any kind of affection so I slapped his hands off of me and shoved him away. Of course this only made him pissed at me. He slapped me across the face and pulled me practically onto his lap.

"Don't do anything like that to me again, ya hear?" I glared at him before receiving another hit in the face "Hear?"

"Yes." I said firmly, beginning to lose my cool

"Good."

He began kissing me some more. The more he kissed me, the more I wanted to get away. Then, right as he was trying to get me to lie down so he could get on top of me, I pulled away from him and tried to go into the front seat. He grabbed my legs and tried to pull me back. I fought with him, still trying to get away. He tried to hold me there and still have his way with me, and I was still trying to fight and get away from him. I punched him hard in the nose before reaching for the switch that controlled the locks. I managed to get the door unlocked but he also managed to grab me and pin me down. He hit me repeatedly while cussing at me; calling me every thing but white.

He was seriously treating me worse than trash and I was beyond fed up with it. I was even more determined now to make my escape. I kicked one of the doors open and finally broke away from him. Not having any idea where I was headed I jumped out of the car and took off running. He started to chase me but I lost him when I went into the woods. I felt tears falling from my eyes but I didn't care to try to wipe them away. All I cared about was getting as far away from Eric as I possibly could.

The next thing that I did, I almost didn't expect. I needed help getting out of there so I pulled out my cell phone and called the very first person that came to mind.

"Come on please pick up…"

"Aila?" I thanked God that he answered "Aila why the hell are you calling? And make it quick; I'm at the hospital waiting to see Jacey and the babies."

I knew Cole wasn't going to automatically sound all bright and cheerful and happy to hear from me. I haven't exactly been the greatest towards him since we broke up, even though I never intended on hurting him, so it was no surprise that he had that bitter tone at first. But once he realized how upset I was, his tone toward me changed.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"Cole I'm in big trouble and I need help. You're the first person I thought of that I could trust so please help me."

"Ok… what's the problem?"

I explained everything that had happened to me in the car. I told him that this sort of thing had been going on pretty much the whole time Eric and I were going out. Cole seemed so horrified as I told him.

"A-alright. You stay where you are and I'll be right there."

"Thank you Cole." I sniffed "I knew you wouldn't let me down. You have no idea how much I…"

He cut me off "Babe, don't worry about it. I'm on my way."

(Hanna's POV)

The only reason why I was at Bam and Jimmy's house was because Dusti was helping me with a geography project I had due. Well of course I had wanted to see my sister but I was told that she had left on a date with her boyfriend, Eric. So when I saw her come back with Cole I was surprised.

Aila looked pretty upset and looked like she had been in a bit of a fight or something. Cole had his arm around her and she kind of leaned against him as he walked her over to the couch. The two of them sat on the couch, Cole still having an arm around her, and they began talking. It really seemed like Cole was trying to comfort her as she began to pour her apparently damaged heart out to him. I decided to leave them alone so they could talk in private.

After a while of the two of them talking downstairs, Cole left and Aila came upstairs where Dusti and I were. Aila started talking to us about what she was talking about with Cole. She told us everything that had been happening with her and Eric, and what had happened in Eric's car before she called Cole to come get her. Dusti and I couldn't believe what she had been going through for so long. We couldn't believe that she would have kept this from us.

After she told us about her and Eric, she began telling us about her and Cole. She said how she explained everything to him about why she broke up with him. She said how Cole was more than understanding about all of that and that he told her how he would let her have as much time that she needed to deal with and get through what had happened to her with Eric. The two of them talked through everything and they agreed upon one main thing; she and him, once she felt she was ready for a relationship again, would try to give their relationship another try. Cole told her that he was going to try his hardest not to push her to do things that she wasn't ready for. This time he'll give her more breathing room and try not to be quite so possessive of her. He also said how once they were finally back together he wouldn't even talk about the marriage subject unless she wanted to.

I feel horrible that she had to go through such abuse from Eric. I especially feel horrible that I didn't know anything about it and that I couldn't do anything about it even if I had known. It made me feel even more horrible that I had been spending most of my time with Jeremey and being away from her, and doing all kinds of things, having fun and whatever, helping everyone else prepare for Jacey's babies, that I didn't even allow myself time to spend with my sister. We used to be so much closer to each other than we have been these last few months. But I figured she had Eric and I had Jeremey and the other things I had been doing lately so we didn't have time to be as close as we normally would and that we'd catch up later.

Dusti, Aila and I sat together in Dusti's room talking for a while. At one point Dusti and I wound up holding Aila as she cried over everything. I think that she is really relieved now that she's gotten away from Eric's abuse, as well as being relieved that she knows that Cole is completely trustworthy to never let her down when ever she needs him. It might tale her a little while to get over this but with help from the two of us as well as from Cole, I know she'll be just fine.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24  
by Punk

(Cole's POV)

"Hey Aila, how you doing?"

I held my phone close to my ear and put my other hand over my other ear to block out the crying. It had been over a month or so since the twins were born. They had just come home from the hospital and they were colicky. And when they cry that makes Jamie cry so the house is usually full of crying and people running around either to stop the crying or get away from it. It's craziest it's ever been around here.

"Hey Cole, I'm doing pretty good. Just working on an English paper."

She sounded a lot happier now that Eric was out of her life, and I was glad for that. Eric backed off after my brothers my dad and uncles went over and threatened to beat the living shit out of him if he ever came near Alia again. As I hear it he won't even walk in the same hallway as her.

"How are the babies doing?"

"They...are very loud." I replied honestly.

Aila laughed on the other end of the line. "Well that means their lungs are healthy."

I laughed. "Yeah. You should come over sometime and see them. They've gotten a lot bigger since they were first born. Their hair is still really dark and they have the biggest blue eyes."

"What is it with your family and black hair and blue eyes? That is one of the rarest combinations and your family has like 10 people who are like that. And doesn't Shawn have brown eyes? How the hell did those babies get blue eyes when both their parents have brown?"

"Same way my mom got brown eyes even though grandpa and grandma have blue eyes. That's rarer yet even."

"Great...so if we ever have kids together we won't ever be able to guess what they'll look like with my green eyes added to the mix."

I laughed. "Yeah that's-hey did you just say 'if we ever have kids together?'"?

"Yeah I did, don't get any ideas though. Now I have to do this English paper."

"Alright Aila. I should probably do something constructive around here anyway. Bye."

We hang up and I grinned. Just then Brant, as we call Brandan, started crying. I knew it was Brant because his cry sounds a lot different then Jada's does. I got up and went into the nursery.

"Hei hei." I picked up my nephew and started to carry him downstairs.

"Hey Cole. Thanks, but I can take him from here." Jacey told me coming up the stairs. I smiled and handed her, her son. She smiled and took him downstairs.

"Hey where is everyone?" I asked following her.

"Uh...Jey has band practice, Chris has a class, Corey is in Mexico with Mark, Josh and Amy have a doctor's appointment, Scarlett is shopping with Amanda and Mom and Dad took Aiden and Jamie to the park. It's just me and you and Brant and Jada."

"Oh yeah. Hey did Corey and Mark's baby get born yet?"

Jacey shook her head and started burping Brandan. "Nope, well...They haven't called."

"That's bellshit!"

We laughed.

(Jacey's POV)

I handed Brant to Cole and went upstairs to get Jada.

"Ya know, Cole, the only good thing about being alone is that there's no fucked up bullshit goin' on."

Cole laughed. "I could do fucked up bullshit."

"No way. Not in front of my kids."

"Aww come on, Jacey. They love their uncle Cole. Besides if you aint gonna let Brant and Jada do fucked up shit, does that you're gonna wear diamond jeans, polos, dye your hair blonde and be normal?"

"Fuck no!" I laughed holding my daughter and kicked my brother in the shin.

"Yeah see. 15 years and these two are gonna be punks just like their mama."

I smirked. "You're absolutely right, you jackass. And my kids can beat up your kids."

Cole laughed. "Yeah keep dreaming Jacey."

I smirked but secretly I started thinking. What did I want for my kids? Here I am, seventeen and I'm a mother. But in all honestly, I knew I couldn't plan my kids' future.

I have a deal to start touring this summer, and I'll be taking my babies with me. I finally got what I wanted. A singing contract. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting but I took it. I'd be opening for "The Sons of Mercy". So Jeremey and I would be touring together. Amanda, Scarlett and I have actually been talking about starting our own band. It would be awesome, my band and my brother's together. And we'd all be opening for Cole's skate tour. It would just like home, Chris was planning to come and document it, Corey and Mark and their new baby would come, Amy and Josh would come along and be bringing Aiden and Jamie because they're our managers. And Mom and Dad might has well be coming along because of the kids.

Cole and Jeremey are trying to talk Aila and Hanna into staying and coming with us, but they miss Finland too much to come, I think. Who knows, Cole might cut out early and go to Finland to be with Aila. And if he goes Jeremey probably wouldn't be far behind, and without Jeremey we'd all be out of the rest of the tour so summer could be pretty boring. But who knows. Aila and Hanna are going home at least for a little while. Dusti, Andy and Jack and Jordan I'm not sure about. I'd love and hate at the same time to tour the east coast with my entire family but it probably wouldn't turn out perfectly.

"Yo Jacey! Corey's on the phone!" Cole yelled to me and I snatched it up.

"Hey Jacey! It's a girl! We're naming her after Kat and Mom. Her name is Katherine Jay Novak."

Corey and Mark decided not to hyphenate their names and Mark just took Corey's last name since Novak is a lot simpler then what "Von D" really stands for. "She's got the brownest eyes I've ever seen on a baby and dark hair and she's like lightly tan. She's soooo beautiful."

Corey texted me a pic of my new niece and I smiled. "Wow, Corey I'm so happy for you and Mark."

"Corey! You're a dad, man!" Cole yelled.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

By Pippie

(Dusti's POV)

"Andy!"

I shrieked and laughed. Andy chased me from room to room in the apartment that we were supposed to be looking at. He picked me up and slung me over his shoulder and then tossed me down onto the beige colored carpet in the empty living room. He then crawled on top of me, pinned me down, and began tickling me.

"Andy stop!" I shouted as I laughed

"What's that?" He continued tickling me

"Stop!"

Andy kept tickling me before he grabbed his pony tail. With his pony tail in his hand he then ran it over my face. I got some of his hair in my mouth which caused me to cough and then I spat it out. He laughed before giving me a kiss.

"So what do you think about this apartment, hun?" He asked

"What apartment?" I seriously forgot where we were right then

He grinned "This apartment." He kissed me again "That we might get for out first home together."

"Um there's too much hippie hair in it." I laughed and brushed Andy's pony tail out of my face

"Hey!"

"What?" I grinned

He just laughed and then kissed me on my neck. Amanda walked in and placed her hands on her hips as she looked at us.

"Do I have to watch you two make out at every place we go to today?"

"You _could _wait out in the car, sis." Andy said before kissing me

Amanda rolled her eyes and shook her head "Whatever."

"Why'd you come along with us anyway?" I asked, sitting up

"Well I had to do some shopping any way so I figured I'd just car pool with you guys. Plus I had to make sure that my little brother didn't screw up the apartment search."

"Hey! What makes you think I'll screw it up?"

Amanda shrugged "You haven't exactly done a good job at finding a place so far. Not just with the places you've picked out, but you have to break stuff where ever you go."

"Oh name one thing that I broke."

"Ok well there was that one place you looked at and put the hole in the wall, you knocked a chair over and broke a leg off of it, you broke the doorknob off of that one closet door, the ceiling fan at that one place fell when you tried to turn it on."

"Alright. First of all I only asked you to name _one _thing. Second I wasn't the one who put that hole in the wall; it was already there but someone had tried to hide it but did a bad job at it. And that leg was already broken off of the chair; it just fell off when I bumped into the chair. And to be fair, that ceiling fan already looked like Steve-O had got a hold of it. All I did was flip the switch and the fan fell to the floor."

"Ok maybe so, but you have to admit that you're kind of accident prone."

I sat there with my mouth covered as I tried not to laugh out loud. Andy and Amanda both looked at me. Amanda smirked while Andy scowled, which caused me to have a harder time controlling my laughter.

"Hey don't look at me." I laughed "I'm staying out of this."

It was so funny to watch them bicker like that. They hadn't known each other but a few months, but the way they acted with each other any one would have sworn that they had known each other their whole lives.

Andy wrapped his arms around me and grinned. He gave me a kiss and then lowered his voice a little.

"So what do you really think about this apartment?"

"Well it _is n_icer than the other ones we've been to."

"But?"

"It's a little too small."

"Too small?" Amanda looked at me with a cocked eyebrow "How much bigger of a place do the two of you need?" She smirked and patted my stomach "Unless you need another room."

I rolled my eyes "I'm not pregnant if that's what you're getting at. We keep saying that we haven't slept together yet; why can't you guys believe us?"

"Riiiiight." She smirked "You two are moving in together and you're not having sex. Even Ryan and Chris don't believe that one."

"My dads believe it."

"Yeah but that's because you're their little girl. They want to believe that you're not having sex."

"And they have every reason to believe it." Andy spoke up "Now please drop the subject."

"Alright." She said

My cell phone rang right then so I went into the bedroom to answer it. If it were anyone else but my dad right then I would have ignored it. But since Bam was calling me, I knew it was important. I just didn't know just how important it could have been. Knowing Bam, it probably was pretty damn important.

(Andy's POV)

Amanda and I stayed in the living room talking while Dusti talked on her phone in the bedroom. Amanda asked if Dusti and I had planned on getting married. I didn't even have time to answer her because Dusti came out of the room looking upset.

"Dusti? What's wrong?"

I walked up to her. She leaned up against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. It looked like she was trying hard not to cry.

"Andy we should forget about looking at the other apartments today." She said softly

"Why? What happened?"

"That was Bam." She swallowed "Jimmy's in the hospital. Bam says that they think he had a heart attack."

Amanda gasped and covered her mouth. I immediately pulled Dusti into a hug. Dusti began to cry quietly, letting her tears fall onto my shirt. I rubbed her back and let her cry for a minute before pulling away.

"Ok hun," I said while looking into her eyes "Let's leave right now and head up to the hospital. We can put off looking at apartments for a little bit."

"Thank you Andy." She said in a breathy whisper. She hugged me tightly before we left the apartment

When we arrived at the hospital we saw Jordan and his girlfriend sitting in the waiting room. He held his head down and his hands were clasped together in between his legs. Once he lifted his head and saw Dusti he stood up and went over to her and gave her a hug. He then began telling her everything he knew about Jimmy. Normally when Jordan talks to someone he'll actually speak a little bit as he signs. But as he spoke to Dusti he only signed to her, which indicated that he was upset but he was going to keep much of what he was feeling inside. He and Dusti stood there for a minute talking in sign language. Dust then came back over to me to tell me what was said.

"He says that Dad wound up having a minor heart attack. Jack was actually with him as it happened. It seems that Jack, I guess, is having a hard time coping with the fact that Dad had a heart attack right in front of him so he decided to stay home with Kayla."

I nodded my head and saw Bam come up to us. Bam then walked Dusti and I down to Jimmy's room. When we got there I stood over by the door and just let Dusti go ahead and do whatever was comfortable for her. Jimmy, I have to admit, for a guy who just had a heart attack he looked pretty good. He was a little pale and a bit weak but he seemed to be in good spirits. Dusti approached his bed with caution and started to cry on the way. Jimmy reached up with one arm and pulled her down into a hug.

"Aww baby girl, don't cry. I'm fine."

"Oh daddy…" She buried her face into his chest and cried

It had been a long time since she called him that so I knew it had to of felt good to him to hear it. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back a little.

"I'm fine I swear. Please don't cry. Hey look at me." She lifted her head and looked at him "You have nothing at all to worry about." He wiped her tears away "I'm going to be out of here and feeling better before your birthday. You can count on that. Besides I've been looking forward to hearing you sing at your birthday." He grinned

It took her a second but Dusti managed to smile a little "Please don't tell me that you're actually going to still make me sing at my birthday."

"It's been a long time since I've heard you sing and I've really missed it. It would make me real happy if you did."

She let out a little sigh "Alright…"

"Hey you know our special song?" She grinned and nodded "Do you think it would be too much trouble if we sang it right now?"

Dusti smiled and let out a small laugh. She hugged him before beginning the song. This special song is a song that every once in a while the two of them would sing together. When Dusti was little Jimmy had left to go on tour with the Bloodhound Gang. Early on during the tour Jimmy wrote a song for her and recorded it during his free time. He sent the only tape to her so she could listen to it when ever she missed him. That song had been their special song ever since.

Right when they began to sing the song, Bam came up to me and quietly asked me to step outside of the room with him. He put an arm around my shoulders as we walked down the hallway.

"Listen Andy. I've been meaning to have a little man to man talk with you regarding my daughter." I nodded "And I figure now is a good time for it. Ok so, even though I know I don't really have to tell you this but, take real good care of Dusti."

I looked at him. I didn't even have to look into his eyes to know how serious he was.

"You and Dusti have been together for a while and you're moving in together soon. I don't know what you have planned with her but you're taking our oldest daughter away from Jimmy and me. You understand that's going to be hard for us, right?"

"Of course."

"Look we've known you your whole life. To me, you've been a real trustworthy kid and if and when the time comes, I would be more than proud to one day call you my son-in-law. I know Jimmy feels the same way."

I couldn't help but smile. Hearing this from Bam really meant a lot to me "Wow thanks, Bam."

He poked me on the chest "But remember, you and Dusti better not give us any grandchildren until you're good and ready for it."

Hearing this almost made me choke on my own spit. But I knew he was serious about it.

"Don't worry Bam. We're not ready for kids. We're not exactly planning on them for a little while."

"Good." He patted me on the back before whispering in my ear "You know that Jimmy and I didn't exactly plan on having Dusti either, so just be extra careful." I looked at him "Don't let me or Jimmy down. Remember we're counting on you to treat our daughter the way that she deserves and better."

"Of course, Bam. You've got my word."

Bam smiled at me and we turned around. It felt so good to know that Bam and Jimmy both felt like they trusted me with Dusti. Bam told me that they would be proud to have me as a son-in-law and made me so happy. This made me feel so much more confident about what I had planned for Dusti and me.


	26. Chapter 26

Chpater 26  
by Punk  
(Jeremey's POV)

"Promise you'll call me as soon as you get home."

I kissed Hanna and squeezed her hand. I can't believe school is over already, and now Hanna and Aila are going home. They promised to be back in a few weeks though; Right before we all leave to go on tour.

A few feet away Cole had Aila in a soft embrace. His forehead was pressed against hers. His blue eyes stared into her green ones. He had his arms around her, the fingers of one hand laced into her long and straight dark brown hair. She had her arms around his neck, fingering his soft black locks. They looked like Aila was leaving for longer then a few weeks. Then Cole bent forward and kissed her and she kissed him back. I noticed just then the flicker of the diamond around her neck.

Just then I felt Hanna's hand across my face.

"Jey." She whispered softly.

I turned to her. I stared into her blue eyes and ran my hands threw her raven colored hair. She kissed me and I kissed her back.

"I love you." She whispered only she said it in Finnish. "Mina lempia te."

"Mina lempia te." I whispered back. "Mina lempia te."

She broke away from me and grabbed her bag. She held my hand and let it slide out as she walked away. Aila joined her and they linked hands as they walked onto the plane. I felt Cole's arm wrap round my shoulders.

"I miss her already." I confessed.

He nodded. "I know. I miss Aila already."

"So, you two are officially back together?"

"Since last night. She took her ring back."

"Yeah I saw it around her neck. But she's not wearing it on her finger?"

"Not for awhile. Right now it's just a promise. The diamond isn't real anyway."

"What?" My eyed widened and I laughed looking at my big brother. "You gave her a fake one?"

Cole snickered. "I didn't have enough money on me when I bought that so I had to buy a fake one. I'm getting her a real one when we decide the time is right. Not a diamond though, well maybe diamonds around it but I think I'll get her an emerald or a sapphire. Maybe both; the colors of our eyes."

I looked at him and snickered. "You really have it all planned out don't you."

He blushed and pushed my shoulder as we walked back to his car.

"What about you and Hanna?" He asked as we got in and he started it up. HIM came blasting through the speakers.

"Well...I really don't know. I love her but I ain't rushin' things." I yelled over the sound of Ville's voice.

Cole laughed and began to sing along to "Solitary man" I joined in, taking the words to heart. By the time Ville's voice drowned out I had decided that I really did want to be with Hanna, but only when she decided the same.

(Chris's POV)

"Hey guys." I was sitting on the couch drinking over my perfect college report card when Cole and Jeremey came in.

"Hey Man."

Cole slapped me a high five and sat down next to me. He grabbed a beer and switched on the TV. Jeremey on the other hand, the straight edge brat he was just grabbed the latest skate mag and threw himself across the chair.

"So many damn things are weird around here without Corey." I said, downing the last of my beer and grabbing another.

"Yeah. Hey, Cole's in here!" Jeremey yelled. "Aww damn it, that's my shot! That's my shot! Did I get paid for that?"

Cole laughed and grabbed the magazine. "Dude. They spelled Novak wrong!"

"What?" I asked laughing grabbing the magazine from Cole. "Damn it how the hell do you spell that wrong?"

"Who the hell is Cole Nowak?" Jeremey asked laughing his ass off.

Cole laughed. "Dude they are gonna get so fuckin' slammed for this. My fans will have their asses!"

"You have fans?" I tried to look serious and then burst out laughing.

"Jeeze, you guys drunk already?" Mom asked coming in carrying the laundry.

"Yup." Cole said with a straight face.

Mom laughed and shook her head. "You boys."

Cole jumped over the couch and took the laundry from Mom. "So where is everyone?" He asked as they walked to the laundry room, with me and Jeremey following just to see Cole do laundry in person.

"Josh and Amy are at the park with their kids. Alex and Jacey took the twins shopping. Scarlett is with Derek Gee doing something, she didn't tell me what." Mom wiped a strain of her jet black hair back and helped Cole with the laundry.

"Where's Dad?" I asked getting so caught up that I didn't realize I was helping.

"He's getting dinner." Mom replied as we got the laundry done.

"So Scarlett is out with Derek Gee. Don't it bother you that your niece is dating your son's half brother?" Jeremey asked jokingly.

"Nope. Didn't bother me when I found out Jacey was going with Dico's kid either."

"Oh." Mom rubbed her knee. "It's gonna storm."

Ever since Mom totally fucked up her knee a few years ago it's always hurt her when the weather gets bad.

"Cool, we could light the candles on the chandelier. Have an old fashion dinner."

I looked and Cole and laughed. He was so much like Mom when it came to that stuff.

"It's gonna storm!" Dad called throwing open the front door and bringing the food inside.

"Yeah we know." Mom went over and kissed him.

Jeremey, Cole, and I helped with the food. Josh and Amy got in just as we got the table set. They were followed closely by Jacey, Alex and the twins. Scarlett came in right behind him. Just as we all sat down, Corey, Mark and their daughter showed up.

"Hey guys. The electricity went off in our apartment so, here we are." Corey said, sitting down.

Mark sat beside him with the baby in his arms. I got up and helped Mom fix them plates and a bottle for Katy.

"Well, the lights are still on here, but we're having an old fashion dinner so everything's unplugged anyway." Mom explained as we served them.

Corey and Mark laughed.

"This is great." I said sliding back into my seat. "It's is really great."


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

By Pippie

(Jack's POV)

We all cheered once Dusti's name was called. After I saw her onstage with her diploma in her hand, I turned to Quinn and gave her a kiss. It took me a while but I finally got her to go out with me. It took me 'til fucking April and I was about to officially give up on her, but I finally got her. The day that she actually accepted my proposal to take her out on a date, I thought it had to be an April fool's joke.

Quinn and I pulled away, still mid-kiss, and looked toward the stage once we heard Jeremey's name. I held her hand and I lifted both of my hands in the air to cheer on my cousin. Other people in the room cheered on their friends and family members who were graduating, but no one did it quite like our family did. Bam even snuck in a small air horn just for the occasion. He even used the air horn just to scare or annoy the hell out of people. He did have to apologize though when he nearly gave this random grandma a heart attack with the air horn.

This is possibly the biggest party our family has ever thrown. Instead of having a few small individual open houses, we've combined Dusti's, Andy's, Jeremey's, Aila's and Hanna's open houses into one uber open house. It seems like the entire state of Pennsylvania as well as part of Finland is here. I gotta tell ya, Bam's probably been planning a party like this since before either of us were born. I've never seen him so excited to plan a party.

Besides all the people, there is so much food around. It's still hard for me to deal with my weight issues, even though I've gotten a lot better about it. Quinn has been helping me, throughout the day, with keeping me under control around the food. She makes sure that I'm not eating too much or too little. I think I just might make it through this as long as I'm with her.

Quinn and I walked through the crowd and wound up standing by my dads, aunt and uncle and Dico. She and I just hung back and listened to the conversation that was going on.

"So Biggs you look like a very proud papa." Dico patted Bam on the back and Bam laughed

"Well I am."

"Just remember, about three more years and you'll have to do this all over again. But at least you'll have a while before you'll have to do this for Kayla."

"Yeah, well, I can't wait for those parties and this one isn't over yet."

I saw Jimmy put his arm around Bam and give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey by the way, Jimmy," Aunt Jade said with a smile "You look great."

"Yeah you wouldn't think that a few months ago you had a heart attack." Uncle Novak added

Jimmy grinned and adjusted his glasses "Well thanks. Bam still has me on a strict diet because he worries too much. But I feel awesome. This is the best shape I've been in, in my life."

Jade patted his stomach "It's about time you lost that baby weight that you've been carrying around for two years." I couldn't help but snicker over that

"Not to mention the weight you had gained before you got pregnant."

"Hey I'm 52 what do you want from me? Besides, Nov, you shouldn't talk about someone's weight. You've had that weight on you since after Jacey was born." He poked Novak in the stomach

I laughed out loud that time. Quinn had to shove a cheese cube into my mouth in order to get me to stop. Then I looked over and saw that Dico decided to draw everyone's attention back onto Bam by getting an inch away from his face. Bam backed away from him.

"Dude what are you doing?"

"I can't believe I just noticed this."

"Noticed what?"

"Well actually I've noticed for a while today that something was different about you but I just couldn't put my finger on it. But now I realized what that was."

Jade looked at Bam and then smirked "I noticed that too, Dico." She moved closer to Bam "Did you…? You did!" She laughed "You dyed your hair!"

"I did not!"

"Oh come on Bam. You had me help you pick out the Just For Men." Jimmy said, causing Bam to blush "You were like 'Bay I gotta cover up all this fuckin' gray. It makes me feel so God damn old.' Waaah…"

Bam's face became deep red after that and everyone else laughed. After that, Quinn took me by the hand and led me through the people. We wound up meeting up with the rest of the gang and we hung out on the big skate ramp. I looked around and realized that this was the first time where we all had a partner. I had Quinn, of course, Jordan had Cho, there was Dusti and Andy right next to me, Cole and Aila next them, and then Jeremey was by the end holding hands with Hanna. On the other side Corey sat happily in Mark's lap while next to them sat Chris and Kerry. And then Jacey and Alex sat on the end, each holding one of the twins. (It's kind of weird how everyone started referring to Jacey's babies as "the twins" instead of Jordan and me.) I looked down the line at all of the couples and realized that we were even more like our parents. I can't wait to be married and have kids of my own. That way I can one day look at my kids and their friends and see the next crazy generation. It just keeps getting better and better.

(Jordan's POV)

It's weird to think that, that party was not quite three years ago. Jack and I had recently started our senior year. The two of us certainly could drop out now but we decided to stick high school out to the end. This summer I'm actually going to co-star on a new "Jackass" inspired show, and Jack's going to be doing a lot of filming. He's going to one day have his own production company.

I'm still with Cho and we couldn't be happier. After much encouragement from Cho, for the first time since I was three years old, I decided to try a hearing aid. This time it wasn't nearly as shocking or painfully loud. The hardest part is trying to get used to the sound of my own voice. Sure I could hear it before but it was always so faint to me that I felt like I had to shout in order to hear myself. But now that I can hear myself it seems so strange. I had no idea I sounded like that. I'm slowly getting used to it though.

Early on in Jack and Quinn's relationship, Quinn decided to talk to me about something. She confessed to me about the reason why it took her so long to hook up with Jack. I was prepared to hear her say that she had a crush on me or something like that but it turns out that she was very intimidated by the famous name or names rather, that our family has. The whole celebrity thing scared her to death. But she managed to get over that and she and Jack are very happy together.

Dusti quit college after her first year because she decided that she already knew all that she needs to know about running her own record label. Our dads also told her a lot about it from what they know from having their own labels. The first band on Dusti's label is Jacey's band, and they're already recording their first album. Dusti is also now happily married to, art major, Michael. Shortly before they got married in July, Andy decided to go by the name he was born with; Michael Angelo Dunn-Raab. It's still weird to call him that.

Kayla is in kindergarten now. She scared her teacher the first day when she ran into the classroom, and didn't stop running until she smacked into the wall… about four times. Bam and Jimmy just stood back laughing at her while her teacher stood there horrified, calling them horrible parents or whatever. I asked them the other day if they regret having her so late in their lives, especially since they're constantly running after her now. They told me that even though she's a handful at times, they are more than glad to have her now. She was their last chance to have a kid before they became grandparents, as they kindly put it. But I know there's more to it than that.

Now I think I should touch base on my cousins. During the wedding shower for Dusti and Michael, Scarlett and Amanda stood up and made a very surprise announcement. After living with each other for about three years, the two of them have decided to adopt a kid together. We were stunned before giving them an awkward applause. Dunn stood up and then proudly applauded the fact that he was going to have a grandchild. It was strange, and very shocking, that Scarlett and Amanda were even together other than just roommates. They've done one hell of a job keeping this from everyone. It didn't even dawn on me until later on that they were actually the first female couple we've ever known personally.

Cole and Aila are doing much better. Cole has changed so much with her and it's clear that Aila is so much happier with him than she ever had been. They're set to get married in about a year. Jeremey and Hanna on the other hand have decided to split up. They felt that although they were a good match, they just weren't meant to be together. But they've remained friends. Not so much to say about Corey and Mark. They're still happily married and enjoying being parents. Chris still hasn't met that special someone. I think that with his job he's going to be a bachelor for a little while. But he's far from complaining about it. Jacey and Alex decided to get married after high school. Alex officially adopted the twins and I think no one would have made a better father for them than him.

That's about all I can tell you about what's been going on in out little on-going soap opera that we call a family. Who knows what's next in store for us. Maybe more weddings and more kids, but that's pretty much a given. Maybe we'll all run into each other and our families while on our separate tours, and then we'll start some new crazy adventures. Ha I can't wait for that. But for now I'll sit back and continue reflecting about the past few years and just let the future happen as it's going to happen.


End file.
